







V 










/ 



/?sr 



PAGODA AND ENTRANCE TO LAEGE TEMPLE, 



KIKKO. 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN 



A 



BY 



H/ B. TRISTRAM, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 



CANON OF DURHAM 



WITH FORTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS PY EDWARD WHYMPER 
FROM SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS 

AN INDEX AND A MAP 



OF Cn *ta>x 

OCT 2b 



£j0 



FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
New York Chicago Toronto 

The Religious Tract Society, London. 



PREFACE 



An apology may reasonably be expected for another 
book on Japan by one who has been a mere visitor, 
not a resident. The following pages are for the most 
part a transcript of the author's daily journal, written 
without any view to publication. But when, shortly 
after his visit, the eyes of the whole world were 
suddenly fixed upon the Land of the Eising Sun, and 
its unexpected display of military genius and power, 
it was suggested to him that his notes might be of 
interest, not only as describing some parts of the 
country seldom visited by foreigners, but as touching 
topics not generally dealt with by previous writers. 

The primary object of the author's rambles was to 
master thoroughly the position of missionary work 
in Japan, especially that of the Church Missionary 
Society, and to ascertain the practical working of 
Buddhism as compared with the Buddhism of China 
and Ceylon. He had special advantages in being 
accompanied by his daughter, who, from her residence 
of some years in the country, her knowledge of the 
language and customs, and intense sympathy wit!) 



6 



PREFACE 



the people, enabled him to gain an insight into many 
things which would otherwise escape the stranger's 
notice. He trusts also that his readers will forgive 
him, as a field naturalist, for many allusions to 
zoology and botany. He will be well rewarded, if he 
shall, however slightly, contribute to deepen interest 
in a race peerless among Orientals, and destined, when 
it has embraced that Christianity which is the only 
root of all true civilisation, to be the Britain of the 
Pacific. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Chap. I. First Impressions .. . • . .13 
„ II. Yokohama and Tokio .... 30 

„ III. A Visit to Nikko 81 

„ IY. The Hakone Lake . . . .124 

„ Y. Nagoya 164 

„ YI. A Second Yisit to Kioto • • , 195 

„ VII. Osaka 225 

„ VIII. Shikoku 247 

IX. The Island of Kittshitj. . . .266 
„ X. Aso San and the G-eysers of Yunotan . 286 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



page 



Pagoda and Entrance to Large Temple, Nikko 


Frontispiece 


Awazi Shima, on the Inland Sea 


. 12 


Nagasaki. 


• • • 


. 17 


TSUDZURA IWA EOCK, HARUNA 




. 28 


Arima .... 




. 31 


Vegetable Pedlar. . 




. 37 


Asakusa Temple, Tokio (Buddhist) . 


. 43 


Zojoji-zozo Temple . 




. 51 


Japanese Soldier of the old 


TIME . . 


. 56 


Japanese Bronze Lantern 




. 57 


Ancient Japanese Archer 


• • • 


. 59 


Japanese Buttons . 


• • • 


. 6l 


Shiba Temple, at Tokio . 




. 67 


Forest Trees near Nikko 


• • • 


. 80 


Bridges near Nikko 


• • • 


. 85 


Japanese Falconer . 




. 95 


Stone Buddhas near Nikko 


• • • 


. 104 


Lake of Chusenji . 




. 113 


Buddhist Priest 




. 117 


FUJILAMA, FROM OMIYA 




. 125 


Wayside Tea-house . 




. 131 


Japanese Travelling Chair 




. 140 



10 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

The Hakone Lake, five thousand feet above sea- 
level . . 145 

Ojigoku, or Great Boiling Spring . . . .150 

Pilgrim going up Fujiyama 158 

Nagoya Castle . . . . ■ . . .167 

Temple at Nagoya, containing five hundred images 173 

Kisogawa River 185 

Colossal Image of Buddha 194 

Temple at Kioto . . . . . . .199 

A Japanese Lady 202 

33,333 Images, Japan 205 

Japanese Shrine Sellers 209 

Weaving Silk 215 

Planting out Rice 224 

Japanese Girls, Writing, Sewing, and Reading . 231 

A Flower-stand in the Street, Osaka . . . 244 

Lady Missionaries' House 249 

Theatre at Tokushima 251 

Missionary's House at Tokushima ...» 254 

Mission Room, Tokushima . .' . . 2£5 

Country Bridge 259 

Japanese Junk ....... 264 

Kumamoto Castle 282 

Country People carrying Firewood . • .293 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



CHAPTER I 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS 

Impressions are always heightened by contrast, and 
the first impressions of Japan, striking and enchanting 
as they must be in any case, were to me intensified 
by the startling contrast to the lands I had just left. 
As we stepped ashore in the lovely land-locked 
harbour of Nagasaki, and set foot on the little islet of 
Deshima, for two centuries and a half the only spot 
of Japanese ground which a European might tread, 
and those Europeans only half a dozen Dutchmen ; 
and when one looked around on the harbour filled 
with shipping of every great nation in the world, and 
then on the sloping sides of the encircling rocky hills, 
dotted with fairy-like villas, peeping out amongst a 
labyrinth of semi-tropical trees, which overshadowed 
clumps of brilliant flowering shrubs, it was difficult 
to realise that only thirty-six hours before we had 
left the monotonous mud -banks and the turbid waters 
of the Yang-tsze-kiang. It was a veritable transfor- 
mation scene. 

The land of China, like its people, strikes one as 
essentially unromantic, everything on a large scale, 



14 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



dull and prosaic, matching the inhabitants, with 
many good qualities, solid, stolid, plodding, unimagi- 
native — in short, a matter-of-fact, business land, 
nothing if not practical, but to a stranger's eye not 
much beyond. At once, after spending a day in the 
fogs of the Yellow Sea, we seemed to have stepped 
into fairyland ; nothing grand, nothing magnificent, 
but everything in perfect harmony, a land of minute 
prettinesses. Well might my artist friend, who landed 
with me soon after sunrise, exclaim as we returned 
from our ramble through the streets : ' I should have 
come for six months instead of one, and brought a 
dozen sketch-books instead of two. Every step 
provides a new picture, every child in the street has 
an artist's eye. The little girls arrange their bouquets 
and sachets as though they were students of Euskin ; 
even the butchers' shops are decorated with vases and 
flowers, as though they were Eegent Street reposi- 
tories. Every woman looks bewitching, and the 
harmony of colours in a bright dress is a perfect 
study. Only one thing spoils the charm, the horrid 
intrusion of European slop tailors. While the porters 
and coolies attract one by their picturesque dress, 
fashion seems to demand from everyone who can 
afford it, that he should assume European hard hat, 
misfitting coat and trousers, and cotton gloves with 
elongated fingers. If the women are charming, the 
men look thorough little snobs.' I must endorse my 
friend's criticism, even though there be plain women 
in Japan as elsewhere. 

Seaport towns, though generally the first 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS 



15 



specimens that the traveller sees of a new country, are 
not necessarily the truest or most attractive represen- 
tatives of their country. No exception can be taken 
to Nagasaki as an illustration of Southern Japan. 
For the capacity of its roadstead, it may well rank 
among the great harbours of the world. The entrance 
is somewhat intricate, but when once entered under 
the anchorage, we seemed to be in a land-locked lake 
surrounded by villas. Looking across the harbour, 
I was at once reminded of the Bay of Naples ; I could 
have imagined myself gazing at Sorrento on a summer 
morning. But our minuter inspection soon revealed 
a difference : the general outlines might be similar, 
but there was a finish, an exquisite variety, an absence 
of whitewash and long stone walls, an adjusting and 
harmonising of every detail with its surroundings, 
which presented as fine an illustration of art conceal- 
ing art as can be seen anywhere in the world. Every 
tree seemed placed as if it were a necessity where it 
grew, and where its absence must cause a disfiguring 
gap ; the very shape of even the largest trees was 
guided by art which Japanese understand so well, for 
trees, like children, are there trained from their 
youth up : whilst the houses seem to suggest that 
they are a natural upgrowth from the rocks on 
which they stand. 

Various little islets dot the inlet. I have men- 
tioned the most historically celebrated, Deshima, the 
prison factory of the Dutch, where, since the expulsion 
of the Jesuits in the beginning of the seventeenth 
century, two Dutch ships a year were allowed to 



16 



E AMBLES IN JAPAN 



discharge and take in cargo, while the residents in 
the factory were never allowed to leave it. The islet 
is now united to the mainland by a causeway, and 
might be supposed by a stranger to be merely a 
continuation of the wharf. Near the farther end of 
the bay a lofty island cliff rises out of the water, the 
Tarpeian Eock of Japanese history, whence, according 
to the received tradition, many hundred native 
Christians, who refused to abjure their faith, were 
hurled into the depths beneath. The calm beauty of 
the scene to-day is indeed in strange contrast with its 
dark traditions. 

Nagasaki, though one of the smallest cities of the 
first rank in J apan, yet from its situation and associa- 
tions was selected as one of the treaty ports, open to 
Europeans, and is a most convenient trading port for 
the Southern Island of Kiushiu. It has not, however, 
increased in importance except as a mail station, the 
local trade being carried on at other ports. . It has 
not a large European population, but it is the centre 
of the Church Missionary Society operations in the 
Southern Island, which has now at length a missionary 
bishop of its own. There is a rather handsome 
English church outside the city, and native churches 
within, as well as extensive schools. 

The most important national establishment here 
is a medical college, the only one in the island, which 
bears very high reputation, and the professors in 
which are chiefly Europeans of scientific distinction. 
In fact, in nothing has Japan advanced more rapidly 
than in medical education, in which she is already in 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS 



19 



advance of some European countries. About thirty 
of the students at the time of my visit were Christians 
connected with the Church Missionary Society. They 
held a devotional meeting once a week in a native 
church for students alone, and had also one night 
for open discussion on Buddhism and Christianity, at 
which I happened to be present, and which was largely 
attended. The discussion was earnest and animated, 
though of course 1 could not understand a word. 

It must be remembered that the island of Kiushiu 
presents many points of contrast to the other islands, 
both in climate, products, and character of the inhabi- 
tants. We are rather apt to forget the great variety 
there is in Japan on these points. With an area one^- 
tenth larger than the British Isles, and the population 
larger in exactly the same proportion — forty-four 
millions to forty — the four main islands of Japan 
stretch slantways through sixteen degrees of latitude 
and twenty degrees of longitude. But, owing to its 
formation and number of islands, it possesses a coast- 
line more than double the extent of that of the 
British Isles. Like them, it enjoys the advantages 
of the warm equatorial current representing in the 
Pacific our own Gulf Stream. 

In the variety of its natural products it vastly 
surpasses our own island group. In Yezo, the. 
Northern Island, the hill-tops are the resort of the 
ptarmigan, identical with the bird of the Scottish 
Highlands ; and the pine forests below are the home 
of the hazel hen, so familiar in the Swedish dahls. 
The great Central Island of Nippon (a name strangely 

o 2 



20 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



corrupted into Japan by some of the earlier navi- 
gators) presents us with the varied produce of 
Northern and Central Europe, until in Kiushiu we 
have all the semi-tropical luxuriance of Andalusia 
and Southern Italy, and of even still more tropical 
climes. The traveller amongst the Ainu of the north 
may gather his bouquets of the lily of the valley and 
various Alpine acquaintances ; whilst the wanderer 
amongst the villages of Satsuma in the south rests in 
the orange groves under the shade of the palm, lulled 
by the swish of the never-resting banana-leaves. 1 
But as the British home possessions extend to the 
Shetlands northwards, and to the Channel Islands in 
the south, so the empire of Japan in the Kurile 
Islands possesses a continuation of insular territory 
to almost Arctic limits ; while in the south the 
archipelago of the Loochoos, connected as they are 
with Kiushiu by an unbroken chain of islets, and 
beyond these again the Majico Sima group, close to 
Formosa, bring the island empire to the edge of the 
tropics, while the acquisition of the latter has 
brought it well within them. 

The Japanese writers therefore may fairly claim 
that their empire stretches across the Temperate 
zone. Young Japan delights to talk of ' the Britain 
of the Pacific,' and considering the very good opinion 
these charming people had of themselves, even before 
the war of 1894, we ought to take this as a great 
compliment. And no doubt, with their vast seaboard, 
countless harbours, and inexhaustible sea fisheries, 

1 The banana lives, but does not bear fruit in Kiushiu. 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS 



21 



they are a nation of born sailors, unapproached by 
any other Eastern nation. A Chinaman behaves well 
on the water so long as he has not to fight ; a Japa- 
nese fisherman — and that is half the nation — is at 
home there. The fishing industry is perhaps quite 
as important to Japan as the raising of cereals ; for, 
until recently, fish was the only animal food ever 
tasted by the people, and still is exclusively so except 
in European settlements. But I shall have much to 
say on this subject hereafter. 

Long before the war with China, popular writers 
in Japan had set their heart upon the acquisition of 
Formosa, which can be easily understood on studying 
the map, and bearing in mind their maritime aspira- 
tions. In a book in my possession, written and 
printed in the English language at Tokio, the writer 
urges the importance of England securing Formosa at 
the earliest opportunity, as being the only security 
against the designs of Russia, who, the writer assumed, 
was prepared to absorb that island as well as Corea 
unless forestalled by England. 

But it is not only in fisheries, it is also in mineral 
wealth, that Japan holds a position of pre-eminence 
which may be compared to that of Spain in Europe. 
The coal-fields, both in the south and north, are 
inexhaustible, and have scarcely been tapped. Even 
though very slightly developed, the yield of her 
copper-mines, after being worked for ages, far exceeds 
the demand, and there is reason to believe that the 
mineral deposits are equally rich in every department. 
Silver, it is said, used to be comparatively the scarcest 



22 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



of the metals, while gold was abundant, and stories 
are rife of the enormous fortunes made by American 
speculators at the first opening of Japan, between 
1854 and 1868, who bought gold in the interior for 
twice its weight in silver. It would require, however, 
a very cute speculator to-day to make a profit out of 
a Japanese bullion dealer. 

But enough of this . preliminary digression. The 
detention of the steamer for coaling gave me the 
opportunity, which I did not miss, of visiting the 
outskirts of Nagasaki, as well as examining the beauti- 
ful manufacture of tortoiseshell articles, one of the 
staples of the place, and which in delicacy and 
minuteness of workmanship far surpasses the skill of 
Naples. 

The coaling was carried on in very primitive 
fashion. The indigenous product (for the coal-mines 
are on an island at the other end of the bay, where 
they are worked by drifts run into the sides of the 
cliff) is passed from the barges in small baskets, head 
over head, by long lines of women and lads, chiefly 
the former, up the sides of the ship, and into the 
bunkers, while the empty mat baskets are passed 
back with equal rapidity by a parallel line of 
workers. 

I was told that bunker coal at that time could be 
put on board for little more than a dollar a ton. 
Now, I believe, the price is very much higher, owing 
to the increased demand caused by the repeated 
strikes in England, and which have already led, 
throughout the whole of the Pacific ports, to the 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS 



23 



supplanting of Welsh and North of England coal by 
the cheaper and equally useful products of Japan, 
Vancouver Island, and even India. I have learned 
that since my visit the Japanese coal-mining (as 
might have been expected) has rapidly developed, 
and likewise the quality of the coal. Certainly, what 
we took in was very friable and dusty, but it was the 
product of an upper seam very near the surface, 
worked only by drifts in the side, while last year 
the lower seams, struck by sinking shafts, have 
yielded a superior quality. 

I could not but notice the instinctive cleanliness 
even of the women who were working at coaling the 
ship. They had worn a sort of blue cotton poncho 
overall and a blue towel twisted on their heads, to 
protect their elaborately dressed hair from the dust. 
When they rested from work they at once threw off 
this outer cloak, carefully shook it, folded it into a 
small roll, and then, dusting their hair and washing 
their hands and face from the boat side, they shook 
themselves out and were as dapper and spruce as their 
neighbours. 

As we walked on shore we were at once struck by 
the immense variety of flowering shrubs, all, at this 
season, one blaze of bloom, much less familiar to 
English eyes than those of the more northern parts, 
many of which are acclimatised at home ; but few of 
those about Nagasaki can with us be more than 
greenhouse exotics. 

The politeness even of boatmen and jinriksha men 
is overpowering, and the little wooden chalets which 



24 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



line the roads, behind their dainty little flower-plots, 
are indeed clean and bright. 

As I afterwards travelled at leisure through a great 
part of Kiushiu, I will say no more of this Devon- 
shire or Kent of Japan. Our voyage next was to 
Kobe, at the northern end of the famous Inland Sea. 
Steamers to that port from China or the Strait? 
usually make it to the east of Shikoku, and so avoid 
the circuitous and lengthy threading of the Inland 
Sea, which, however, is, I believe, for beauty and love- 
liness absolutely without a rival in the world. I do 
not say this hastily, for I had the good fortune to 
make the voyage three times — twice from south to 
north, and once the return voyage ; and these were 
so timed that on one or other occasion I have tra- 
versed every mile of that fairy sea in full sunlight. 
Let the traveller recall the finest bits of coast scenery 
he can recollect — the Bay of Naples in spring, 
Wemyss Bay on a summer's morning, a trip round 
the Isle of Wight, threading the islands of Denmark's 
Sounds, the luxuriance of the Sumatran coast, the 
windings of the coral islets of Bermuda — recall which- 
ever of them you please, wait but an hour or two — 
and you will match it in the Inland Sea. 

Before entering the sea itself, we were winding for 
ten hours between the Archipelago of Goto and the 
mainland northward, and then, turning eastwards, 
crossed the Gulf of Genkai and steamed through 
the narrow entrance into the Inland Sea, the 
straits of Shimanoseki, i.e. Point of the Islands, 
between the northern poir f < of Kiushiu and the 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS 



25 



farthest extremity of the main island Hondo, on 
which are the flourishing fishing and trading towns of 
Bakan on the north and Moji on the south, the latter 
being prepared for a powerful battery of Armstrong 
guns. 

The entrance to the sea is a narrow passage, 
apparently not more than two miles wide. It was a 
lovely morning as we entered. The whole scene 
baffles description : islands, bays, terrace-ribbed hills, 
woods of stately cryptomerias, wooden villages 
nestling in every recess — the distant ones, to use a 
very unpoetic simile, looking like clumps of mush- 
rooms under the green ridges. The sea, resplendent 
as a mirror, was without a ripple, fleets of fishing 
junks were dotted about everywhere, sea birds, many 
species new to me in life, clumsily splashing out of 
our way, and diving about fearlessly on all sides. In 
these latter we were fortunate, for I saw comparatively 
few birds on subsequent visits. But the winter 
emigrants had not yet started for their summer homes. 
There were mergansers in great numbers, grebes of 
various species, and countless myriads of the Pacific 
species of puffins, shearwaters, guillemots and crested 
auks. There were also abundance of sea-ducks, 
scoters, scaups. It was simply a fairy scene which 
passes description. But alas ! just at one of the 
finest points a dense fog abruptly met us, followed 
by a downpour of rain. The only thing was tc 
anchor at once, till the fog should lift. 

The scenery was equally enchanting during the 
whole of the rest of the voyage, but even beauty 



26 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



unvaried becomes monotonous, and we did not murmur 
at sunset robbing us of our scenery, nor rebel at the 
thought of retiring to our berths. Soon after dawn 
we could make our destination, the harbour of Kobe ; 
very different from Nagasaki, comparatively more of 
an open roadstead, and a long straggling city, the 
most part of low wooden houses, with a few handsome 
terraces of stone houses, built European fashion, in 
front. Behind it on the south-east rises a range of 
hills about 1,000 feet high, on the lower slopes of 
which part of the town is built. A further range rising 
to 2,000 feet is the favourite summer resort of the 
inhabitants, known as Arima. To the northward 
extends a low, flat, uninteresting country of monoto- 
nous paddy-fields. We had to anchor far out, but 
European and Chinese harbour extortions do not 
appear to have reached Japan. We soon secured a 
little sampan, which tossed about very much like an 
empty tub, but landed us at the custom house for the 
moderate fare of 2^d. each. The customs exami- 
nation was not rigorous, the officers being politeness 
itself, and though sorely puzzled by a tiger's skull 
and anteater's scaly covering, and amused by 
specimens of Chinamen's clothes, yet passed every- 
thing, even the prohibited Chinese embroidery, on 
my assuring them it was not for purposes of trade, 
but for presents to friends, and that I should buy far 
more in Japan. Then an officer observed to my 
daughter, who had come down from Osaka to join me 
here, ' Your father's friends will see how much better 
things there are in Japan than in China.' 



TSUDZURA IWA HOCK. HAEUNA. 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS 



20 



The sketches which accompany this chapter, taken, 
as they are, from photographs, will explain much 
better than any description the varied character of 
the scenery of the Inland Sea. We may note the re- 
markable ingenuity with which pines of various kinds 
have been coaxed to grow on the top of every little 
isolated rock and out of the sides of every cliff. The 
pines beiug rooted in the cracks or crevices of the 
cliffs, are cleverly trained laterally to the desired 
length, and in the distance may be seen the solitary 
pine which, like a monument, crowns an isolated 
rock ; while the fishing village nestled under the 
trees, with the boats drawn up in perfect security in 
the little cove which no storms can disturb, is a type 
of a thousand others which dot the shores of Japan. 
In some places somewhat lofty mountains approach 
the coast, especially on the east or Shikoku side ; for 
a few hours after leaving the straits we pass the 
north-eastern point of Kiushiu, and are flanked on 
the eastward by the adjoining island of Shikoku, the 
fourth in importance of the Japanese group. The 
rocks of these mountains, chiefly igneous, often 
present very grotesque forms. It is difficult to 
imagine a more exact representation of a human bust 
than a rock in the forest of Haruna, as shown in the 
illustration. 



30 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



CHAPTER II 

YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 

Our steamer was to remain a day at Kobe, so we 
took the opportunity of spending the time at Osaka, 
the Manchester of Japan, only twenty miles from 
Kobe (accessible by frequent trains on a very 
European-looking railway). 

For some little distance we ran along the foot of 
the hills, amongst which nestles out of sight Arima, 
the favourite summer resort, with its mineral springs 
and waterfalls. We soon, however, left the hills 
and crossed a monotonous plain intersected by a 
rectangular network of dykes and ditches, reminding 
one very much of the country between Haarlem and 
Amsterdam, and with cultivation yielding nothing 
in neatness and cleanliness to the Dutch. 

Most of the compartments were paddy — that is, 
rice — fields, in a few of which the green blades 
were appearing above the black mud. But a very 
large number of the fields were cropped with rape 
just now in full bloom, one mass of golden yellow, 
and patches of cotton just budding, giving the 
whole plain the appearance of a chequered carpet 
spangled with yellow and green. 

An hour brought us to Osaka, of which more anon. 




J 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



33 



But to the stranger who had just landed, the ways 
of the folk, their clean houses, lavish use of flowers, 
chubby clean children, with either dolls or babies 
strapped to their backs, pretty, bright women and 
girls, picturesque balconied houses, canals full of 
boats crossing the streets continually — all was novel 
and charming. But as I shall have occasion to write 
more of Osaka, and describe the missionary work, 
of which it is the centre, later on, I shall say no 
more at present. 

We returned to Kobe, and re -embarked on board 
the magnificent Canadian-Pacific steamer Empress of 
India, Captain Marshall, R.N.R., and weighed anchor 
about midnight. Consequently we missed the coast 
scenery, and the next day, as it was blowing a gale 
of wind, we stood out to sea, and only had distant 
views of the mountain ranges. The following 
morning we landed at Yokohama. 

This, the place where many travellers first touch 
Japan, the first treaty port, and the port of Tokio, 
the capital, owes its importance entirely to foreign 
trade. It was merely a fishing village in 1854, but 
now a magnificent esplanade of splendid houses in 
the European style faces the sea, not at all Japanese 
in their character. On both sides a straggling 
native town of mean wooden shanties extends along 
the shore ; whilst behind, a bold eminence, known 
as the Bluff, within the limits of the foreign con- 
cession, is covered with handsome villas, gardens, 
and winding drives. For the stranger who wishes 
to see the Japan of the Japanese, Yokohama can 

D 



34 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



have but few attractions ; the miscellaneous crowd 
drawn to a great seaport being by no means im- 
proved by contact with foreigners, but too often 
imitating the vices they see, and losing their native 
simplicity. At the same time the emporiums on and 
near the esplanade contain by far the finest assort- 
ment of Japanese wares and curios, at the best 
prices, to be found in the empire. 

Amidst much in the port that is distressing to 
a Christian Englishman to hear of and witness, I 
must not omit to mention a specially bright spot, the 
Sailors' Home, combined with the missions to seamen 
afloat, under the direction of the admirable chaplain, 
the Eev. W. T. Austin, and his indefatigable wife 
Dormitories, dining-room, and recreation-room are all 
well furnished, whilst an attractive reading-room is 
more liberally supplied with papers, magazines, and 
light reading than one often finds out of England ; 
many of the merchants and agents who are indifferent 
about evangelistic efforts being very willing to con- 
tribute to this branch of the work. It was pleasing 
to see how many American and English sailors 
appreciated the place. I had not an opportunity of 
seeing the work of the American missionaries in the 
native town, of which I heard good reports. 

As an illustration of American enterprise, the first 
letter that was handed to me before I left the ship 
was one from a dealer in birdskins, who had seen my 
name in the passenger list, and, recognising me as a 
naturalist, sent a special invitation on board by his 
agent. I must confess he was rewarded for his pains. 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



35 



In order to see the city we embarked in jinrikshas, 
the universal hansom cabs of Japan. They are, in 
fact, a light armchair with a hood, on a pair of 
bicycle wheels, with long shafts, and a coolie running 
between them. It was long before I could reconcile 
myself to the sensation of being dragged about by a 
brother man, but it is really the only mode of locomo- 
tion, except one's own legs, possible in this country 
outside the railways, and as a Japanese once said to 
me, ' Why should you object to a man-drawn carriage ' 
(literal translation of jinriksha), ' when you have no 
objection to being pulled by a man in a boat ? ' 

Towards evening we went by rail to Tokio. The 
railway system is much on the American plan, with 
the important exception that there are always three 
classes of carriages ; but most are long and open 
down the centre, and well ventilated. The country 
through which we passed was rich and thoroughly 
cultivated. On one side, the Bay of Tokio studded 
with shipping, a rice-covered plain intervening. On 
the other, a range of low hills with picturesque brown 
wooden cottages, frequent little temples and shrines 
marked by the Shinto gateway, one of the universal 
features of Japan ; and orchards of fruit-trees. On 
one part of the plain was an expanse of pear-trees, all 
trained on trellises like the vines of Italy, and in full 
bloom ; the peach and cherry were everywhere in the 
glory of full blossom. In fact, it is chiefly for the 
blossom that these fruit-trees are cultivated. The 
plums are little better than sloes, the cherries very 
small, and the peaches poor. So little are the fruits 

D 2 



36 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



appreciated that there are more double-blossoming 
than single-blossoming trees, and the blossom by 
cultivation has been developed to three times the 
size of the corresponding bloom at home — the cherry 
bloom often attaining the size of our wild rose, and 
the peach that of a double daisy. There was nothing 
grand on the route, but everything attractive, neat, 
clean, and sweet, perfectly in keeping with the bright 
little folk who cover the land. We found ourselves 
the only foreigners in the long American car, and 
whilst my daughter talked to some girls, a young 
Japanese came and sat by me, and tried to air his 
English, which was very scanty, and which at first I 
did not recognise, but which pleased him mightily. 
From the station we rode in jinrikshas through 
wide streets with the most picturesque-roofed, one- 
storeyed houses, and open shops decked in the gayest 
colours. All was wood, paint, and paper. It was 
really like living on a Japanese screen. Canals 
almost as numerous as streets ; and by the side of 
all this old-world quaintness, tramways and 'buses, 
telegraph poles — one of which carried sixty-four 
wires as I counted them — and here and there the 
whistle of engines, and the chimneys of factories ; 
now and then little boulevards with rows of peach- 
trees, one blaze of bloom. 

Tokio — that is the east capital — was known as 
Yedo until 1868, when the Mikado took up his 
residence there instead of at Kioto or Saikio, the 
west capital. It is a vast place extending many 
miles, and having a population of one million three 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



39 



hundred and eighty-nine thousand souls, but very 
flat, the greater part of its area having been recovered 
from the sea within the last three centuries ; the 
favourite quarter of Shiba on a low ridge being the 
Highgate and Hampstead of the place. 

We were quartered for a few days at Tsukiji, in 
the European concession, with a hospitable friend, the 
Rev. J. Williams, of the Church Missionary Society. 
Missionaries in Japan have a great advantage in that 
the people are not jealous of Christian, but rather of 
foreign, influences, and keenly appreciate the value of 
education. The educational system in Japan, whether 
elementary, secondary, or higher, is very complete 
and perfectly organised. The government subsidises 
it liberally, and Christians are perfectly untrammelled, 
while there are Christian professors in the University, 
and Christian masters in the schools. The empress, 
who takes a lively interest in education, has estab- 
lished a college for ladies with handsome buildings, 
where the daughters of the nobility resort. 

The strange juxtaposition of East and West, of 
indigenous and European civilisation, never ceases 
to impress one : all the women in native bright 
costume, many of the men in European dress more 
or less well fitting. But still the native costume 
predominates in Tokio. Everyone carries his insignia 
embroidered on the back of his blouse or coat : 
employes have the name of the firm in huge hiero 
glyphics or Chinese characters covering the whole 
of their back ; gentlemen always have their crest 
embroidered about the size of a dollar between their 



40 



RAMBLES IN" JAPAN 



shoulders. The huge hieroglyphics on the backs of 
the labouring men are supposed to be the distortions 
of ancienb Chinese characters, though even the 
learned are now unable to decipher them. The 
armorial bearings of the gentry are rigidly hereditary. 
The Japanese have a very ancient and highly sys- 
tematised heraldry, quite distinct in its idea from our 
bearings and shields, and taken chiefly from leaves 
and flowers. Thus the ordinary imperial crest, as 
emblazoned on all the Mikado's carriages, is the 
chrysanthemum ; and another, the more official, crest 
is the blossom of the paulonia, consisting of three 
upright spikes of blossom, like that of the horse- 
chestnut, in a row, with three leaves hanging down 
below. The insignia of the latest Shogun dynasty 
was a trefoil taken from a large species of the herb 
Paris. The Shoguns, or mayors of the palace, were 
commonly known to Europeans before the opening of 
Japan as Tycoons, a corruption of the Chinese Tai 
Kwon, i.e. great general. These crests or badges are 
impressed on all the old porcelain and bronze, and 
indicate at once in what district or under what 
Daimio the article was manufactured. 

The palace of the emperor, with its widely ex- 
tended parks and moats, occupies the site of the old 
castle and grounds of the Shoguns. The park is 
surrounded by a wide and deep moat, the enclosing 
walls of which are of enormous cyclopean masonry. 
In places it is almost choked with lotus and several 
species of water lily, and crowded with wild duck, 
amongst which the beautiful mandarin duck is most 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



41 



conspicuous. Within the moat are the old magnifi- 
cent walls, absolutely impregnable before the days of 
gunpowder. Passing over a drawbridge and through 
the gateway, we enter the outer radius, laid out as 
a beautifully kept park. Within this are a second 
moat and encircling walls, quite as wide and massive 
as the outer circuit. Within these again are the 
private grounds, gardens, and palace of the emperor. 
I should have mentioned that in the outer park, after 
crossing the first moat on the right, was the debris of 
an extensive range of wooden buildings which had 
lately been destroyed by fire, and which, with the 
usual promptness of Japan, crowds of workmen were 
busily employed in clearing away : already they had 
commenced their reconstruction. These ruins were 
those of the first Parliament-house of Japan, which, 
having closely imitated the English Constitution in 
its two houses of Legislature, of which the upper 
is partly hereditary and partly nominated for life, 
further imitated us in the burning down of its first 
St. Stephen's, though after a much shorter experience. 
We can only trust that the carefully devised institu- 
tions of Japan may be more permanent than their 
first home. 

Beyond the site of the Parliament-houses is a wide 
parade ground, answering to our St. James's Park. 
On the other side of the park is a vast range of 
buildings, the offices of the various government 
departments, in which our own subdivisions of the 
Treasury, Home Office, Education, etc., etc., have 
been pretty closely followed. Here also is the 



42 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



government printing office, and the manufactory 
of bank-note paper, which is a legal currency. 
Strangers are permitted to see the printing office. 

The palace itself was not open to visitors when we 
were there, as it was occupied by the emperor. In 
its outline it follows the antique Japanese architec- 
ture, while a great part of it is internally furnished 
after the European fashion. 

Just beyond the outer moat of the imperial park 
is situated the British legation. I cannot sufficiently 
acknowledge the courtesy and kindness of our 
minister, the late Mr. Frazer, whose recent death we 
have to deplore ; through whose kind efforts we at 
once obtained special passports enabling us for six 
months to travel wherever we pleased, without being 
troubled by the police authorities, a favour which is 
very rarely granted, and which caused us to be the 
envy of many of our compatriots. I had letters to 
Count Ito, and recommendations from the Foreign 
Office as a scientific man much interested in educa- 
tional work. These proved of great value in my 
rambles. 

Our next day's sight-seeing was an expedition to 
Uyeno, the Hyde Park or South Kensington of Tokio. 
Here have been held three national industrial exhibi- 
tions. Of course, as we had a journey of some miles 
across the city, we made the expedition in jinrikshas, 
or, as they are commonly called by the Japanese, 
kurumas. I now experienced for the first, but not 
the last, time the tantalising inconvenience of this 
Japanese mode of travelling. There were four of us 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



45 



in a line, quite unable to converse, while I, seeing 
every minute new and perplexing sights, with my 
daughter just in front of me, but quite unable to ask 
her a question, was obliged to be content with the 
contemplation of the back of her hat. The speed 
which our coolies keep up is really amazing. They 
maintain the rate of five miles an hour, and fre- 
quently a greater speed if the distance be short. 
On one occasion two men with one kuruma kept 
up this speed for four hours without a moment's 
halt. At length, as we approached Uyeno, we came 
to a slight ascent, and were very glad to get out 
and walk, though one frequently finds that the men 
consider the attempt to walk uphill a slight upon 
their powers, and try to prevent one from alighting. 
Entering the park, we visited the Technical Museum, 
that of Natural History, and that of Japanese 
Antiquities. 

The Natural History Museum is only in its in- 
fancy, and the industrial department gives a very good 
illustration of the various manufactures, textile, metal, 
porcelain and lacquer, of the country. But the 
national antiquities are such as can be seen and 
studied nowhere else. They begin by the stone 
arrow-heads, spear-heads, celts, and pottery of the pre- 
historic period, differing very slightly from our own. 
Some of the rude pierced ornaments and beads are 
still in use in the Loochoo Islands, and of exactly the 
same shape, thus giving us one of the very few indica- 
tions we possess as to the origin of the early inhabi- 
tants of Japan. Next follow, as in Western Europe, 



46 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



the mirrors, utensils, and weapons of the bronze 
period, with pottery of a less rude character. Then 
follow a large collection of various articles, and of 
pottery figures of men, horses, and birds, which were 
found in great quantities inside the funereal mound 
of one of the earlier emperors. The next hall is 
devoted to antiquities of the historic period, the 
earliest certain date being a.d. 708, from which period 
downwards there is a fine collection of coins ; the 
ancient coins were not circular, but oblong, some of 
the gold ones very large and covered with hiero- 
glyphics, but no busts. The other antiquities are 
chiefly of Buddhist origin ; but one of the most in- 
teresting collections is that of the Christian relics, 
especially those brought by the embassy sent to Eome 
by the Prince of Sendai, a.d. 1614. 

There is an amusing difference in the Japanese 
and Eoman versions of this embassy. The European 
writers state that the envoy went on the part of the 
Shogun to recognise the supremacy of the pope, who 
in return presented him with the freedom of the city 
of Eome and loaded him with presents. The Japanese, 
on the contrary, state that the Shogun sent the envoy 
in order to report upon the political power and 
military strength of the European nations. Amongst 
the relics is a Latin deed conferring on Hashikura the 
freedom of the city of Eome, a picture of him in 
prayer before the crucifix in his European costume, 
and copies of the prince's letters to the pope in 
Japanese and Latin. By the side of these are shown 
the trampling boards — i.e. large metal slabs, with 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



47 



figures of the Virgin and Child, and of the different 
incidents of the Passion — on which suspected 
Christians were compelled to trample in order to 
testify their abjuration of Christianity. This collec- 
tion must be one of the most touching interest to 
every Christian. 

In other halls are exhibited the quaint furniture 
and trappings used by the Mikado and Shogun and 
their courts up to the time of the present generation. 
The most curious are an ancient bullock carriage and 
palanquins, most richly carved and gilded, as well 
as the state barge used by the Shoguns. These 
bullock carriages bear the same relation to the kuruma 
of to-day that the state coach of Queen Elizabeth 
does to a modern landau. There was also the throne 
of the ancient Mikados, with the rich silk hangings 
that used to conceal him from the gaze of his subjects, 
who were only allowed to see his feet. Some of the 
state carriages are three hundred years old, and the 
lacquer work and porcelain jars are of untold value. 
There is, besides, a fine collection of old Japanese 
armour and swords. 

We went next to the Zoological Gardens, which 
are only in their infancy. Two sheep in a cage 
between some small bears on the one side and leopards 
on the other were evidently the most popular 
curiosity. They were taken for lions, and when they 
bleated some of the children exclaimed, e Lions 
roaring ! ' 

We then went on to a very fine Shinto temple, the 
arrangement consisting of various separate buildings. 



48 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



Facing the shrine of the central temple was a large 
hall, quite open in front ; in fact, the stage of a 
theatre, with roof and walls of wood most gorgeously 
carved, gilded and painted. A play was being per- 
formed. All the actors were men dressed in antique 
costume ; all wore masks, some of them grotesque, 
and there was much pantomime and recitation. The 
theatricals seemed to resemble what I had seen in 
Chinese temples, and, evidently connected more or 
less directly with the worship, reminded me of what 
one reads of the miracle plays of the Middle Ages. 

We turned round — the temple shrine was just in 
front of us, much like another stage, almost the 
counterpart of the theatre. Within the shrine was 
only a large circular disc or mirror of burnished 
metal, with long strips of white paper suspended from 
inscribed tablets on either side. In front of it a 
lavish display of lights burning ; a number of priests 
in green vestments with strange instruments, all 
sitting on the elevated platform and producing weird 
music ; below this dais the people kneeling in prayer, 
frequently clapping their hands ; while the whole 
sacrarium was covered with small coins, called rin, 
the value of each being the twentieth of a penny, 
which the people threw, aiming them at a large box 
placed in the middle of the sanctuary. This we 
found was a great function —the anniversary of the 
death of one of the Shoguns. 

The Shinto worship is utterly different from the 
Taouism of China, and has none of its gross idolatry. 
In some respects it is analogous to the old Persian 



YOKOHAMA AXD TOKIO 



49 



fire worship, the mirror representing the sun, who 
himself is the representative of the invisible Deity, 
while the Mikado is the human representative of the 
sun, and therefore, in some degree, a partaker of the 
divine nature. Nor is this all the meaning of the 
mirror, the great feature of Shinto worship. In it 
man is supposed to see his own heart mirrored, and, 
comparing it with the purity of the white paper by 
its side, to see wherein he fails, and correct it. A 
Japanese was supposed to be superior to any moral 
code ; one glance at his heart was sufficient, and 
he would certainly reform himself. 

Close by are the tombs of the Shoguns, with two 
mortuary temples. The carving and gilding of these 
temples is lavishly rich in barbaric splendour. The 
whole structure is exclusively of wood, the ground 
colour of everything being painted red, upon which 
the most skilful native art has been lavishly employed 
both in painting and sculpture. Their open-work 
carving of birds and flowers, the symbolic chrysan- 
themum predominating, is mingled with the richest 
arabesques ; the columns are wreathed with plum- 
blossoms in red and gold, the beams with lions' heads 
also in red and sold. Within the shrines are nierno- 
rial tablets, sumptuous specimens of the most costly 
gold lacquer, commemorating the dead. Another 
temple contains the shrines of the mothers of eight 
Sho grins. Amongst the fantastic animals which 
decorate the panels of these buildings I was surprised 
to notice both the unicorn and the phoenix, probably 
suggested in the sixteenth century by the intercourse 

E 



50 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



of Japan with Western Europe. An even finer 
temple than these formerly existed on the site of 
the museum, but was burnt down five-and-twenty 
years ago, during a battle fought in this park 
between the troops of the Mikado and those of the 
last Shogun. 

Passing from the temples, we walked under a 
gorgeous avenue of cherry-trees, just now in full 
blossom and at this time the great attraction of Tokio. 
It is difficult to describe the exquisite beauty of the 
pink cherry-blossom. It is like nothing else, and has 
been called 'uniquely beautiful.' One looks up and 
the air seems filled with pink clouds. The natives, 
with their instinctive eye for beauty, are never tired 
of these promenades. On one occasion, when we 
were making an excursion, our kuruma men begged 
to be allowed to take us round by the cherry avenue. 
When we replied that it would be more than a mile 
out of our way, the men said they would charge us 
nothing more if we would only go, for the beauty of 
the place would abundantly reward them. I have 
not met with a London cabman with such an appreci- 
ation of the beauty of our parks in spring. One of 
the striking features of the Uyeno temples are the 
colossal bronze standard lanterns, some of them eight 
or ten feet high, which are placed singly or in rows 
leading up to the temple. Immense stone lanterns 
of the same model often occur in various temple 
grounds. It is difficult to estimate the enormous 
value of the metal of the solid bronze masses. They 
are the gift of various great Daimios or other rich 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



53 



men to the memory of the Shoguns, and each lantern 
has the name of the donor inscribed upon it. 

After these reminiscences of the Japan of the past, 
I spent two days in visiting the University of Tokio, 
the embryo Japan of the future. The Imperial 
University is intended for the whole country, and is 
the only university in the empire. All students must 
have previously passed through one of the three great 
colleges, which are supported by the government, and 
of which there is one in the island of Kiushiu and two 
in Hondo. There are more than 1,300 students at 
the university. I met a number of professors, most 
of them native gentlemen, graduates of Cambridge, 
Leipsic, and Harvard, amongst them a wrangler and 
two English professors, both Fellows of the Eoyal 
Society. I had an introduction to Dr. Ijima, the head 
of the zoological department, where there is really a 
fine national collection, and the nucleus of a good 
general museum. I was invited to dine in the 
common-room with the professors, who all spoke 
English fluently. The dinner, however, was not 
purely Japanese, for knives and forks and European 
as well as native dishes were generally patronised. 
The students do not reside in college, nor is there any 
collegiate discipline. They appeared generally to 
wear a dress modified from our cap and gown. 

I was much interested with the botanic gardens, 
and learned a good deal from the curator, as well as 
from the gardeners who happened to be employed by 
my host, of the Japanese arts of dwarfing, transplant- 
ing, and distorting trees and shrubs. They success- 



54 



RAMBLES m JAPAN 



fully transplant forest trees at any age. They have 
dwarf pines, cryptomerias, maples, and oranges, living 
and healthy, only a few inches high, with leaves 
blossom, fruit, all equally liliputian, in perfect pro- 
portion. They are extremely fond of the grotesque 
and artificial. How the double blossoms and the 
spotted foliage plants, of which they are so fond, are 
produced, I was not able to ascertain. Most effective 
are the trees, maples and others, in which the foliage 
of each branch is of a different colour. Thus I have 
seen a well-grown maple-tree with seven large limbs, 
each having foliage of a different hue, varying from 
dark copper to pink and greenish-white — this, of 
course, by grafting. The trees that are intended to 
be dwarfed are placed in pots alongside of a wire 
frame ; it may be two or three feet in height, or 
perhaps only a few inches. This frame represents the 
exact number, shape, and size of the branches the 
tree is to be allowed to have ; and every branch is 
bound to the wire or else cut off. The roots are 
carefully pruned and confined, and the young foliage 
is unceasingly nipped off. The transplanting of full- 
grown trees was very simple. The roots were simply 
laid bare, taking especial care to preserve the most 
delicate fibres, and, as soon as the earth has been 
cleared away by the fingers or sticks, not with spades, 
lest they should be bruised, each bunch of rootlets is 
confined in a little cotton bag. I have seen a tree 
moved in this way which required twenty men to 
move it with rollers. When the tree is placed in 
its new position, the bags are unloosed one by one, 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



57 



and fine, pulverised soil carefully sprinkled between 
the fibres, no rootlet being allowed to touch another. 
They attach great importance to the work of trans- 
planting, which is always begun in the evening, being 
completed before the heat of the next day. However, 
Japanese gardening is an art which it evidently 
requires years to master, and which would well repay 
the student of plant life. 

Charming as are the buildings and scenery of 
Uyeno, they are certainly in almost every point 
excelled by those of Shiba, 
situated at the southern 
end, as Uyeno is at the 
northern, of the great city. 
We spent portions of several 
days in visiting this maze 
of gardens, temples, and 
tombs. The great street 
leading to it contains the 
most interesting shops of 
every kind, the type of 
which is but little spoiled 
by European innovations. 
Here is the Wardour Street 
of Tokio. 

JAPANESE BRONZE LANTERN. 

1 was most attracted by 
the fine collections of the ancient armour, now — 
alas, for picturesque quaintness ! — utterly discarded. 
As one watched the nimble battalions of little rifle- 
men marching through the streets on their way to or 
from parade in their Frenchified uniform, and now 




58 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



read of their prowess against their hereditary rivals, 
we could hardly realise that not only the grand- 
fathers but the fathers of these dapper little men 
had paraded these same streets in all the glory of 
their mediaeval accoutrements, weighted with chain 
armour and steel helmets, and girt with their two 
swords. 

The collections of old armour and swords in these 
shops were to me as fascinating as a display of the 
fashions in Eegent Street to an English belle, while 
the prices, as far as I could judge, were extremely 
moderate. I made many purchases at a price really 
less than the value of the material. Amongst the 
most beautiful specimens of Japanese art were the 
richly inlaid guards of the swords, elaborately worked 
in gold or silver in endless artistic devices. Some of 
the sheaths also were exquisitely ornamented in the 
same fashion. In fact, ancient armour was at this 
time a drug in the market, many of the poorer 
Samurai being compelled to part with their treasured 
accoutrements for rice. We purchased several swords 
of very fine temper for moderate prices, but the work 
of some of the celebrated artificers of these blades 
still commands a fancy price, their reputation sur- 
passing the reputation of the finest Damascus blades. 
The names of some few of these artificers are handed 
down for many generations, and their blades, which 
are marked and recognised, are treasured as a 
Stradivarius would be by a musical connoisseur. 

There were also for sale large collections of nitsuki, 
or ivory carvings — a kind of large button used for 




ANCIENT JAPANESE AEOHEE. 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



61 



fastening the inevitable pipe and pouch into the 
girdle. Some of these are exquisitely carved, and 
are masterpieces of art — mice nearly life size, 
squirrels and various small animals in all sorts 




JAPANESE BUTTONS. 



of attitudes, where the artist has indulged his 
lively fancy in every form of grotesque humour. 
These sculptured nitsuki are pierced with two holes, 
through which a silk cord is passed, on which used 
to be hung little bags of flint and steel, tobacco 



62 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



and bamboo pipe with its tiny brass bowl. The flint, 
steel, and tinder-box are of course now superseded by 
matches. The grotesque generally preponderates in 
these nitsuki, but many of them are historical figures 
or illustrations of domestic life. In fact, from these 
carvings one may get as complete an idea of Japanese 
life as we may of Egyptian from the frescoes by the 
Nile. Ivory has evidently been a most abundant 
material in Japan until recently, but it is not the 
ivory of the elephant from India. It is said to have 
been imported from Corea, whither it had been 
brought from the shores of the Arctic Ocean, strewn 
with the tusks of the prehistoric mammoth. 

Being in search of a butterfly-net, or the where- 
withal to make it, I was directed to the shop of a 
dealer in fishing-tackle. It was interesting to find 
that the trout and salmon of Japan succumb to the 
same wiles as their fellows in Northern Europe. But 
while the flies were home-made, the hooks themselves 
were all supplied from Red ditch, the wares of which 
have completely supplanted the native manufacture. 
Gaudy salmon flies, brown palmers, and other familiar 
types, recalled, in that far-off land, the memories of 
many a Northumbrian ' burn.' We found, too, a 
taxidermist's shop ; for the study of Nature in all its 
branches, botany especially, was appreciated by the 
Japanese long before the country was opened to inter- 
course with Europe. While rummaging his stores, I 
came across an excessively rare bird from the Loochoo 
Islands, of which only two or three specimens had 
ever reached Europe. I had found his prices very 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



63 



moderate, but for this he asked me five dollars. I 
demurred to the price, but I have always found the 
Japanese are at once fetched by a joke ; and so, when 
he told me that the dealer in live birds across the 
street asked twenty-five dollars for a living bird, I 
replied, through my daughter, that such a good man 
as he was worth a thousand dollars when alive, but I 
would be sorry to give ten for him when dead. The 
dealer threw himself back, laughing heartily at the 
joke, and said I might have it for a dollar. 

But nothing in this street was more interesting to 
me than the shops of the dealers in live birds. I have 
never been able to ascertain how the Japanese succeed 
in keeping in captivity many species which with us 
pine and perish in confinement. One of the commonest 
cage-birds is the titmouse, all the species of which, 
several of them identical with, or closely allied to, our 
own, as the great, marsh, and cole-tits, seem most 
happy and healthy in their little bamboo prisons. 
The Japanese robin, a close cousin of our own, and 
only to be distinguished by his under-parts being 
steel-grey where ours are white, is also a very favourite 
cage-bird. I often thought, when I saw robins, 
titmice, warblers, and the like, singing brightly and 
evidently at their ease in their cages — birds which we 
never, or very rarely, succeed in domesticating — that 
there must be something very sympathetic in the 
Japanese nature, some magnetic attraction between 
them and the birds, which is foreign to our more 
phlegmatic Western nature. I was struck, too, by 
the contrast, in appearance and plumage, between the 



64 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



sprightly cage-birds of Japan and the draggled, 
miserable-looking captives which I have seen in the 
Chinese bazaars. But the Japanese cultivates his 
captives because he loves them ; the Chinaman entraps 
them to trade with the foreigner. The abundance of 
swallows skimming in all the streets, and threading 
their rapid flight between the heads of the passers-by, 
must strike the most unobservant. Scarcely a house 
or shop in Tokio is without one pair at least of these 
cheery little summer residents. They are of two 
species, one scarcely to be distinguished from our own 
chimney swallow, the other the red-rumped swallow, 
almost as abundant, but easily to be distinguished by 
the bright red of the lower back, and its streaked 
throat and breast. There being no chimneys, both 
species adapt themselves to circumstances and build 
on the rafters and ledges of the houses and shops, 
within reach of any passer-by, flitting in and out with 
the fearlessness of domestic pets. To molest them 
would be a crime equal to rudeness to a fellow- 
creature. And in order to prevent any dirt or untidi- 
ness, a thin board is carefully suspended under every 
nest, and daily cleaned. Our chimney swallow finds 
a ledge to build his open nest, but the other attaches 
his mud structure to the roof, after the fashion of 
our window martin, and for greater security adds a 
funnel-shaped passage about a foot long of the same 
material. Hence they are called in the country ' the 
bottle swallows.' 

But we have lingered long on the way to Shiba ! 
Shiba has a charm of its own in the fact of its being 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



65 



on rising ground ; and the magnificent and noble trees 
certainly are an exception to the ordinary diminutive- 
ness of most things in Japan. As a friend remarked 
when he had first seen an avenue of gigantic crypto- 
merias, ' It is worth coming to Japan to see the 
cryptomeria at home.' The floral glories of the islands 
were at their height. The glowing sheets of colour 
covered the double-blossoming cherries and peaches 
of every hue, from the deepest crimson to the purest 
white, in great masses ; and then the cryptomerias, 
maples, Salisburias, and other trees, with their pale 
and dark foliage, were grouped artistically in a way 
of which we have no conception. 

But the central attractions of Shiba are the shrines, 
sacred to the memory of Shoguns of the Tokugawa 
family, six of whom are buried at Uyeno, two at 
Nikko, and six at Shiba, whilst the last deposed 
prince is still living. These shrines are of very rich 
woodwork, with the most elaborate gilding, approached 
through numerous groups of colossal stone lanterns. 
We enter by a gatew T ay whose pillars have metal 
dragons twisted round them, and are gilt. The court 
inside this gate is lined with two hundred and twelve 
huge bronze lanterns, the gift of different Daimios 
during the last two centuries. Through a third gate 
are galleries with richly painted panels and carved 
birds and flowers, while the beams of the roof of the 
temple are carved into the shapes of dragons. Here 
we had to take off our shoes before we entered what 
may be called the chancel or sanctuary. Within the 
inmost sanctuary are shrines in which are concealed 

F 



66 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



the statues of the different Shoguns. But these 
images, the gifts of emperors, are never shown, so 
that there are no images visible. On the outer plat- 
form the Samurai and lesser gentry used to worship, 
whilst in the corridor leading to the inner sanctum 
the great Daimios were admitted ; the Great Shogun 
alone worshipping in the inner sanctuary. On either 
side of the shrines are wooden statues of the guardian 
angels, who are supposed to protect the world against 
demons. The outer courts of these shrines are 
decorated with barbaric magnificence. The most 
gorgeous gold lacquer is held together by costly and 
beautifully executed metal work. It is curious to 
note amongst the favourite decorations the unicorn, 
the fabled animal, which seems to be recognised in 
the East as well as in the West. Behind these 
gorgeous temples a long flight of stone steps leads 
up to the tombs of some of the Shoguns. Most of 
these tombs are striking for their austere simplicity, 
everything about them being suggestive of power, 
in striking contrast to the lavish decorations of the 
temples in front. 

About a mile farther on is a very curious Buddhist 
temple, the burial-place of the forty-seven Ronins, 
who are looked upon as national heroes by the 
Japanese, and form the groundwork of one of the 
most popular romances. Although the events are 
said to have occurred only about two hundred years 
ago, they take a place in Japanese romance not unlike 
that of the heroes of King Arthur's Eound Table 
amongst ourselves. The outlines of the story are 



■(". 

1 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



69 



wcrth telling, as illustrating the national spirit, which 
el vated a bloodthirsty revenge to the highest place 
ariong the social virtues. The story is briefly this : 

One Daimio having been assassinated by another 
in a dastardly manner, his vassals, or Samurai, as 
they are called (a position somewhat resembling that 
of the esquires and retainers of a mediaeval knight), 
having now no liege lord, became Eonins, that is, 
6 wave men,' a kind of mendicant soldiers of fortune, 
it being beneath their dignity to engage in manual 
labour. Forty-seven of them entered into a secret 
league to avenge their lord's death, in which enter- 
prise, after many romantic adventures, they finally 
succeeded ; and having seized the great Daimio, they 
offered him what was considered an honourable end, 
by permitting him to perform harakiri, that is, to 
give himself the happy despatch by using his own 
short sword. On his refusal they slew him, and 
then, proceeding to Yedo, gave themselves up to the 
authorities, who sentenced the whole of them to 
perform harakiri, which accordingly they did, and 
have been looked upon as loyal heroes and martyrs 
ever since. 

Pilgrimages are made to their tombs in this temple, 
as to the shrine of Thomas a Becket ; incense is con- 
tinually burned in their honour, and their clothes 
and relics, carefully preserved, are at certain intervals 
of years exhibited to the admiring crowds who Hock 
from all parts of the country, as in Europe to the 
Holy Coat of Treves, bringing great wealth to the 
temple Sengekuji. 



70 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



This group of buildings in Shiba is one of the most 
remarkable in the whole country, surpassed only by 
those of Nikko and Kioto. But what struck me most 
was the wonderfully artistic arrangement of the trees. 
We seemed to be wandering in a wild wood full of 
exotic trees, and at every turn came unexpectedly on 
a roof nestled beneath them, with its upturned corners 
resplendent in the sunlight. 

Few things can give the stranger a better idea of 
the art and manufactures of Japan than a visit to the 
Shiba Kwankoba, or bazaar, with its winding maze 
of corridors, on either side of which all the goods are 
exposed. It is well to visit this place with a well- 
lined purse, for the temptations are irresistible. The 
young ladies in attendance stand in front of, not 
behind, the counters. There is one immense advan- 
tage to the Western stranger, in that, contrary to the 
almost universal custom of the country, all the articles 
are marked in plain Japanese figures, and there is no 
bargaining. Hours may be spent in the contemplation 
of things new and old — antique carving in ivory ; 
costly bits of ancient pottery ; lacquer of every kind, 
ancient and modern ; bewildering piles of delicate 
porcelain ; silks, rich, plain, and embroidered ; screens 
and fans ; to say nothing of more homely domestic 
articles. I was able to make an interesting collection 
of Japanese tools and instruments, and many charming 
models illustrating all the operations of .agriculture 
and carpentry, culinary work, and the life of the 
home. Dolls and toys were a great feature, and 
in the latter the productions of Holland pale before 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKTO 



71 



those of Tokio. One was instantly impelled to count 
up the numbers of nephews, nieces, and grandchildren 
whose birthdays would be gladdened by a remembrance 
from the other side of the world. 

The following morning, April 29, on looking out 
I was surprised to see a display of colour in a novel 
form in every direction over the whole city. On the 
roofs and corners of houses all around were huge 
paper balloons in the gaudiest colours, suspended 
from bamboos from twenty to fifty feet high. The 
balloons, or hollow paper bags, are cut in the shape 
of a fish, sometimes twelve feet long, with a large 
open mouth formed by a wire ring, into which the 
wind blowing inflates the fish, which waves about 
after the manner of a weathercock, and is painted 
very cleverly in brilliant colours. It was the J apanese 
May Day, and on this day it is the custom that a 
paper fish should float over every house in which a 
boy has been born during the past year, and it 
remains hoisted for a month, giving every town and 
village the appearance of being en fete. The girls, 
I am ashamed to say, have no such honour paid to 
them. The explanation of this extraordinary custom 
is that it symbolises that as the fish swims up stream, 
so may the boy successfully face all the struggles of 
life. Some boys are honoured by a row of a dozen 
fishes on one pole, and certainly, to judge by the 
thousands of these fish-flags, there is no fear of a 
lack of men in the coming generation to defend their 
country. 

I had been asked by the Tokio Christian Evidence 



72 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



Society to deliver a lecture on this afternoon on 
Historic Corroborations of the Pentateuch from recent 
Egyptian discoveries. The society is formed by the 
missionaries of the various denominations, chiefly 
American, and the president is Archdeacon Shaw, 
the venerable senior missionary of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel. The lecture-room was a 
large isolated hall, called the Tabernacle, built near 
the University by American Methodist Episcopals, 
but which is used freely for Christian work by all 
denominations. Archdeacon Shaw was in the chair, 
and I was rather taken aback by the size of the 
audience, about a thousand, of whom one-fourth were 
undergraduates of the University with their soft 
square caps. Most of them understand some English, 
and all are eager to improve themselves in our 
language. I also here met for the first time Bishop 
Hare, an American prelate, who was for the time 
assisting Bishop Williams. I must say the Japanese 
are patient listeners, for they bore with me for an 
hour and twenty minutes. I can only hope that 
many of them carried away a clearer idea than did 
the reporters of the Yokohama papers, which honoured 
me with a column. However, it is something that the 
Japanese papers should give unasked so much space 
to a religious subject. In the evening I enjoyed an 
extremely pleasant dinner-party at the English Bishop 
Bickersteth's, where I met, amongst others, Mr. Kirk- 
wood, the legal adviser of the Japanese Government 
on international law, and Professor Ijima, Professor 
of Zoology in the University of Tokio. 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



73 



Wliile staying with Mr. Williams in Tsukiji I had 
my first and only experience of a Japanese earth- 
quake. Would that the experience of others had 
been fraught with as little injury as my own ! As I 
was sitting in my room just after breakfast, all of a 
sudden the floor seemed to heave a sigh ; the prints, 
of which there were a good many, clattered tw T o or 
three times on the walls, and the bells in the house 
began to ring. I knew at once what was the matter, 
for though it was years since I had felt an earth- 
quake, the sensation is one the memory of which 
time can never efface. My mind reverted at once to 
the earthquake which overthrew Bona and Djileli in 
Algeria, and of which I had experienced the full force 
in the Sahara. On both occasions I had a strange 
physical sensation, resembling, I suppose, that of sea- 
sickness, of which happily I am personally ignorant. 
I do not suppose that the tremulous motion lasted 
more than three seconds, though the vibration con- 
tinued a little longer. No further harm was done in 
Tokio, though people, when other conversation failed, 
mentioned it as we might the weather. 

A Sunday in Tokio gave me an opportunity of 
seeing a little of the Christian mission work. Cer- 
tainly the metropolis of Japan has samples before it 
of every form and development of Christianity. There 
are representatives of the Church Missionary Society, 
the first English society of any denomination to enter 
Japan ; of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel ; Bishop Bickersteth's mission ; the Cowley 
Fathers ; the American Protestant Episcopal Church. 



74 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



very strongly represented ; and of Americans, Presby- 
terian, Cumberland and Southern ; Congregationalist ; 
Baptist ; Methodist Episcopal ; Wesleyan ; Dutch 
Reformed ; Society of Friends ; American Unitarian ; 
Russo-Greek ; and Roman of different orders. At 
this time I do not think there were any British 
Nonconformists. 

I began with the Japanese morning service in the 
Church Missionary Society's church at Tsukiji. The 
congregation amounted to about sixty adults, and the 
sermon was preached by a young catechist who struck 
me as being well satisfied with himself. This, how- 
ever, can hardly be called a mission church, as the 
native congregation bear the whole expense and 
maintain the catechist. I afterwards attended 
English service at the American cathedral. As we 
entered the building we met the Japanese congre- 
gation just streaming out. I was introduced to the 
venerable Bishop Williams, who had just resigned 
his see, a pleasing old man with humility and self- 
sacrifice stamped in every feature and action. He 
certainly was no lordly prelate. Prayers were read 
by a young clergyman, who had been in England 
with the Cowley Fathers. It is a noble church, 
cruciform, with aisles, lofty and light, and thoroughly 
Protestant in all its arrangements, perhaps more so 
than in its personnel, and serves all the English- 
speaking people in the concession. 

At two o'clock I went to the Church Missionary 
Society's Japanese Sunday school, where the children 
repeated Hebrews xi., which of course formed a 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



75 



capital text for Old Testament catechising. At three 
o'clock began another Japanese service, at which I 
did not stay long, but went in the evening for a long 
walk with Mr. Williams to visit some of his preaching 
places in the poorest parts of this vast city. He has 
four in all, some of them miles apart. The first we 
visited opens on a narrow street, its front being 
simply paper shutters, which, when pushed back, 
open the whole room on to the street. It is used 
as a ragged school all the week, and as a Sunday 
school, and in it are held continued preachings on 
Sunday and weekday evenings ; exhortations, short 
or long (for the Japanese are patient listeners), being 
given by one native after another. It has benches 
for about sixty children. The farther half of the 
room is a raised dais, covered with fine Japanese 
matting, and has a table in front. The few women 
present sat on the matting. Sunday school was just 
over when we arrived. A hymn was given out and 
started in front of the room. This soon drew a crowd, 
and the preaching began. The people looked very 
attentive, the room quickly filled, and hardly any 
went away as long as we were there. After another 
hymn a second preacher stood up, very fluent and 
energetic, his language to me all unknown, though, 
as I afterwards found, I was used as an object-lesson, 
which explained some broad grins turned towards me 
once or twice. We then walked on for a mile to 
another similar preaching place, where we found a 
very earnest catechist addressing about a score of 
men, who seemed to hang on his words. After him 



76 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



came forward a well-dressed native gentleman, who 
spoke, Bible in hand, for nearly half an hour. He is 
a well-to-do business man and an earnest Christian, 
who regularly preaches on Sunday. After an hour's 
walk we got home at past ten o'clock, I having 
listened in whole or part to six Japanese sermons 
in one day. 

I afterwards had opportunities of seeing the work 
of Bishop Bickersteth's mission in the Shiba district. 
Of course his staff is much larger and more concen- 
trated than that of any other mission in Tokio, except 
perhaps the American Episcopal. He had living with 
him in his house, known as St. Andrew's, five young 
university clergymen, who devote their energies to 
educational and evangelistic work, the most impor- 
tant part of which is a Divinity School, where young 
natives are trained for the ministry. There are large 
classes held in the evening, which attract many besides 
the divinity students, and so outsiders and non- 
Christians are won. The missionaries certainly work 
very hard and zealously, and the result is seen in 
their converts. Close to the house is a pretty little 
church, in which there are many services throughout 
the day, of what appeared to an old-fashioned English 
Churchman an extreme type. I enjoyed many of the 
short services, though I could not but regret that 
such Romish names as Sext and Compline were given 
to the two English daily services, in which the prayers 
and all else were good and scriptural. 

A few hundred yards from St. Andrew's and its 
little group of buildings is St. Hilda's, picturesquely 



YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO 



77 



situated on the side of a beautifully wooded little 
ravine, the home of an English sisterhood which has 
been established there by Bishop Bickersteth, and 
where much work is going on. Especially are there 
many classes for girls, all of good social position. 
Though by far the greater number of them are non- 
Christians, yet all have religious teaching, and under 
it some have become Christians. Attached to the 
school, but separated by a part of the garden, was a 
hospital for the poor, of twenty beds, beautifully 
ordered, and no lack of space and air, and under the 
management of a very clever and capable nurse. This 
hospital, I am sorry to learn, has lately been aban- 
doned, owing to a difficulty about the lease. But 
we must remember that in Japan, with its medical 
schools and educated surgeons, there is not the 
demand for Medical Missions that exists in other 
Oriental countries. 

During our stay at Tokio we had occasion to 
revisit Yokohama on business, and were fortunate 
enough to see in harbour there a finer fleet of men- 
of-war than can often be seen out of the Medi- 
terranean. Not only was the Japanese fleet mustered 
there, several of them first-class warships, looking as 
trim and smart as any English man-of-war, but there 
were also riding at anchor a German frigate, a French 
frigate, a United States gunboat, and three English 
corvettes, with a Russian close behind them. It is 
remarked that an English man-of-war is never seen 
in these seas without a Russian in her train. Of 
all the five nationalities whose flag was shown, the 



78 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



Japanese were by no means the least smart in 

appearance, though they certainly failed in rowing 
with the neatness that marked our gigs. The Eussian 
looked very shabby, and certainly seemed wanting in 
smartness and cleanliness. Besides these, there were 
many mail liners and several magnificent American 
clippers, the first I had seen in these seas. It was 
difficult to realise, as we looked at this fleet of many 
nations, that we were in a roadstead unknown to 
name or fame five- and-t wen ty years ago. 

After enjoying our row amongst the shipping, 
we found not a less strange contrast with the past 
on shore It was a gala day at Yokohama, and flags 
were flying in all directions, for the annual races 
were being held on the Bluff, and the Mikado had 
come down expressly to see this English sport. Oh, 
the descent in one generation, from the offspring of 
the gods enshrined in mystery amidst the enchanted 
gardens of Kioto, to the spruce gentleman in European 
costume, driving in his barouche to witness an English 
horse race 1 



CHAPTEE III 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 

Oue, first expedition into the interior from Tokio was 
to Nikko, nearly a hundred miles north of the capital. 
Nikko, which may be compared to the Oxford and 
Canterbury of the country combined, is, according to 
the firm belief of every Japanese, the most beautiful 
place in the world. They have a familiar proverb, 
' No one can say Kekko, i.e. splendid, till you have 
been to Nikko,' and I am almost inclined to agree 
with them. Even before the introduction of railways, 
and when the journey could only be performed by 
the tedious and fatiguing jinriksha conveyance, no 
traveller who had the time at his command neglected 
to visit Nikko. Now it is as easy as any journey in 
England. We proceed by the great arterial railway 
of Japan as far as Utsu-no-Miya, whence a branch 
line, thirty miles in length, deposits us within two 
miles of the little town. In this journey for the first, 
but not for the last, time we felt the luxury of our 
extensive passport, by which we avoided the irritat- 
ing necessity of making repeated applications to 
the central authorities at Tokio, stating beforehand 
the exact route proposed to be taken, the object of the 
journey, and the precise time to be occupied. The 
respect this passport commanded from the ubiquitous 

G 



82 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



little policeman was apt to engender a triumphant 
feeling of superiority over ordinary mortals. 

Our second-class carriage was clean and airy, the 
compartments opening into one another, and pas- 
sengers often changing their seats. Our fellow- 
travellers appeared to be all thorough gentlefolk, 
several of them speaking English, and eager to air 
their knowledge. "We could not but be amused at 
the solitary instance of superior exclusiveness which 
was exhibited by a very smart cavalry officer, no 
doubt a Japanese representative of ' the Tenth ' of 
former days. More than one passenger, who evi- 
dently recognised that my daughter was engaged in 
missionary work, asked questions on the subject ; 
and one especially seemed greatly interested, ex- 
changed cards with her, and promised us a visit at 
the Nikko hotel where we intended to stay. The 
pace of the train happily was not that of an English 
express, so that we were enabled to enjoy the ever- 
varying landscape. Sometimes we passed through 
rice flats, more often along gentle slopes dotted with 
picturesque villages ; amongst them a long straggling 
village entirely occupied by florists, who supply the 
Tokio market ; whose gardens and nurseries, bright 
and pretty, set off the landscape with their rich 
borders of varying colours. We generally had in 
sight the old great northern road, one of the finest 
in the empire, lined with pines, crypt omerias, and 
other trees. 

From Utsu-no-Miya, where we changed trains, the 
line was generally a steep ascent. In the last fifteen 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



83 



miles we rose 1,750 feet, and had a magnificent 
view of the mountain mass at the roots of which 
nestles Nikko. The train crept up parallel with a 
magnificent avenue of gigantic cryptomerias, which 
for twenty-five miles shade the ancient road by 
which the Shoguns annually visited the temples 
of Nikko. These trees and those of the various 
minor avenues about the temples are amongst the 
finest specimens of forestry in the world, averaging 
a hundred feet in height, many of them more, and 
some five or six feet in diameter at six feet from 
the ground. Although of such great size, they are, 
as our illustration shows, planted very close together, 
and form to the eye a mighty wall of dark green, 
through which not a ray of light penetrates, ex- 
cepting where here and there some storm has over- 
thrown one of these forest giants. We passed 
through many smaller woods of deciduous trees, 
brightened by the conspicuous bloom of two species 
of red azaleas and of three kinds of Pyrus japonica, 
one of which, which bears the largest flower, runs 
along the ground after the manner of the whortle- 
berry. I was struck here, as I repeatedly was 
afterwards, by the wonderful variety of low flowering 
shrubs in the flora of Japan, and the comparative 
paucity of herbaceous flowers or annuals. A few 
miles before reaching Nikko, a second of these 
colossal avenues converges towards the railway, 
shading an ancient sacred road, by which the envoy 
of the Mikado used to carry his offerings to the 
shrines of the deceased heroes. 

a 2 



84 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



From the terminus of the railway we had a 
jinriksha ride of more than two miles through the 
village to our native hotel, Nikko being a long hilly 
street, lined on both sides with irregularly straggling 
houses. Let it not be supposed, however, that 
Nikko lacks a large hotel, built in foreign style and 
with all the usual accompaniments. We, however, 
wisely determined to go to a native hotel, and sub- 
sequent experience confirmed the correctness of our 
choice. After passing through the village we reached 
a rocky ravine spanned by two bridges side by side : 
a mountain torrent, now milky from the melted 
snow, dashed amongst the boulders at the bottom, 
and the sides were garnished with shrubs of many 
kinds, springing from -every fissure in the cliffs. We 
crossed by the lower bridge. The other, a few yards 
above, is an ingenious wooden structure painted 
bright red, and forms a graceful elliptic curve. It 
is supported by massive stone piers fixed into the 
cliffs below, and its bright colour forms a striking 
contrast to the deep green of the tall cryptomerias 
which overhang it on either side. It is near a 
hundred feet long, and was built more than two 
hundred and fifty years ago, and we were told that 
such are the preservative qualities of the paint, or 
rather red lacquer, with which it is covered, that it 
has never required repair since its erection. A tall 
gate encloses it at either end, and it is only opened 
twice in the year for the passage of pilgrims visiting 
the shrine. It was formerly closed to all excepting 
the Shogun when he came to worship. 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



85 



Its sanctity arises from its standing on the spot 
where Shodo Shonin, a mythical Japanese saint, is 
said to have crossed the river in the year a.d. 762. 
His story is full of strange, weird legends, of which 




BRIDGES NEAR NIKKO. 

(The more distant is oidy opened twice in the year, for the passage of pilgrims.) 

the one connected with this bridge is a sample. 
Shodo is said to have been directed in a dream to 
ascend a certain mountain, but when he arrived at 
this spot he found his progress arrested by this 



86 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



impassable gorge. Falling on his knees and praying 
for help, a divine being of gigantic size flung across 
the river two green and blue snakes, which formed 
in an instant a bridge of rainbow shape spanning 
the ravine. The moment the saint had crossed, the 
god and the snake-bridge vanished. Shodo then 
settled at this spot and erected a hut, which was the 
forerunner of the group of magnificent temples which 
are now the glory of Japan. Shodo Shonin died in 
817, and he seems to have been a Shinto devotee, 
who, meeting some Chinese missionaries, embraced 
the Buddhist faith, or rather incorporated it with 
his hereditary religion. 

Crossing the bridge, we turn sharp round to the 
left, up a gentle ascent flanked on either side by 
little villas ensconced in their gardens, till at length 
a little board projecting neatly from a garden hedge 
proclaims in Chinese and English characters our 
hotel, first patronised by Mrs. Bishop, the well- 
known pioneer lady. A tiny stream meanders 
through the tiny garden, with stepping-stones, 
islands, bridges, and quaintly dwarfed trees and 
shrubs, the trees the exact models of the willow 
pattern and other porcelain devices. On a broad 
stepping-stone in front of the verandah ledge of the 
cardboard house are two pairs of slippers for our 
use, and we step into the exquisitely clean, fine 
matting, soft as velvet, which carpets the rooms, 
while the boards of the verandah are polished as a 
dining-table. There are three parlours in a row, all 
open, for the sliding paper walls are pushed back 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



87 



into a recess or taken out in the daytime. One of 
these is our sitting-room. But as to the furniture, 
even into this exquisite gem of a Japanese house 
foreign ideas have penetrated. In consideration of 
the weakness of Western travellers, there is a little 
table and two cane chairs in each room, for all are 
furnished precisely alike. There is also a tiny side- 
table, and on each table is a vase of lovely flowers, 
and the sides of each room are occupied by cupboards 
with sliding paper doors. Behind these rooms is 
a similar arrangement of open verandah, looking 
out on another garden of dwarf trees, islands, and 
bridges, but bounded by a steep cliff overhung, as 
is all the mountain-side, with forest trees, and down 
the cliffs are arranged a series of baby cascades, 
which feed the tiny lakes and then pass under the 
house in a porcelain channel into the front garden. 
The paper sides of the rooms are hung with many 
kakemono, depicting very cleverly groups of birds 
or scenery. Lacquered and varnished stairs lead from 
back and front verandahs to our bedrooms, having 
paper partitions which are thrown back until the 
evening. The dwelling apartments of our host and 
his family are a continuation of our own, and are 
reached by the same verandah, the kitchen, which 
we often visited, separating them. In these private 
rooms we found the same exquisite matting with 
which the guest-room floors were covered, but no 
tables and chairs. 

Our host, to whom we had already written for 
apartments, received us with all the ceremony and 



88 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



grace of a Japanese gentleman, showed us our rooms 
upstairs and down, though, as we were for the 
present the only guests, we enjoyed the run of the 
whole house. Mr. Kanaya was a typical host, 
making us feel at once that we were looked upon 
not as lodgers by payment, but as guests of the 
family. Like a Boniface of the olden time, he 
accompanied us into our parlour, sat gracefully on 
the floor, and entered into conversation, recounted 
his recollections of Mrs. Bishop, suggested the ex- 
cursions which ought not to be omitted, and the 
number of hours or days that each would occupy, 
and actually inquired whether the bent of our tastes 
were antiquarian, or botanical, or for scenery or 
sport. With his hotel he combined a small farm, 
and was also a lay clerk in the great Buddhist temple 
hard by. He volunteered a full account of himself 
and his family ; but, knowing our religious opinions, 
he took care to inform us that, though he held office 
in the temple, for which he was remunerated, he 
did not believe much in Buddhism. In fact, he was, 
like many of his countrymen, more agreeable than 
reliable. 

After chatting some time he reminded us that 
we were to be supplied with foreign dinner, and, of 
course, professed readiness to give any delicacy from 
any part of the world. Finally it was decided that 
we should have fish soup, a standing Japanese dish 
pigeons and pheasant, with Japanese sponge-cake 
and tea. This sponge-cake is a curious relic of the 
ancient Spanish connection. It is known by the 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



89 



Japanese as Castera, i.e. Castille (the Japanese 
always substituting ' r ' for ' 1/ which is wanting in 
their language, and which they find great difficulty 
in pronouncing), the art of making which they learnt 
from the Spanish missionaries three hundred years 
ago. On my demurring to the pheasant and asking 
if it were not the close season, our host clapped his 
hands, and thus summoned the pretty little maiden, 
who soon reappeared with a beautiful green cock- 
pheasant, which had evidently been snared and 
illegally poached in anticipation of our visit. This 
bird, known as Phasianus versicolor, is in form and 
size exactly like our own, but its plumage a brilliant 
glossy green. It is very common in all parts of the 
country which we visited ; as is another species 
with a very much longer and broader tail, of a 
rich copper colour, powdered with white spangles, 
known as the copper pheasant, Phasianus scintillans. 

There was considerable alarm a few years ago lest 
these pheasants should have been exterminated by 
the demand for them in Paris, and I am afraid in 
England too, for the decoration of ladies' hats. One 
merchant at Yokohama told me that he had in one 
year exported thirty thousand copper-pheasant skins. 
Fortunately, the plumage of the hens being very 
modest, they were not in demand, and in three or 
four years the fashion happily passed away, though 
not before the government were proposing to inter- 
fere to arrest the destruction of the greatest ornament 
of the Japanese woods. 

Having thus installed ourselves, we set out to take 



90 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



a cursory survey of the neighbourhood. Eetracing 
our steps towards the sacred bridge, we passed the 
foreign hotel, a large unsightly building in European 
style, when we were surprised at being hailed in 
English by old friends from Shanghai, whom we 
never expected to meet here, and whom we were 
delighted to have as companions in our subsequent 
excursions. Eeturning to our home at sunset, we 
found our paper walls all closed in for the night, and 
also, what I had not perceived before, that there are 
double walls, the outer one of wood, all round the 
verandah, and which during the daytime are put 
away in cupboards, but which now gave the house 
the appearance of a huge wooden box. They are 
certainly useful, not only for warmth, but for privacy, 
as the little boys are very fond of watching the 
proceedings, especially of foreigners, by wetting the 
paper walls with their tongues and with their fingers 
making peep-holes. However, the weight of the 
whole of these walls, whether wooden or paper, 
should be reckoned in ounces rather than pounds. I 
could almost fancy there was a danger, if anything 
caught the button of my coat, of walking away with 
the walls of the house. 

The inspection of the group of the temples and 
Mausoleum of Iyeyasu is a full day's work. This 
latter is perhaps the finest, and certainly the most 
interesting historically, of the vast group of sacred 
buildings that dot the lower slopes of the mountain 
Nikko San. From the great repute for sanctity of 
Nikko, it was chosen as the burial-place of Iyeyasu, in 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



91 



the yea? 1617. This Iyeyasu was one of the greatest 
rulers and generals Japan has seen, and the founder 
of the Shogun dynasty of Tokugawa, which continued 
in unbroken succession the practical rulers of the 
country until the revolution of 1868, when the old 
feudal system of the rule of the Daimios under the 
Shogun or Mayor of the Palace was entirely abolished, 
and the Mikado, who had been for many centuries a 
mere faineant monarch, like the later Merovingians of 
France, emerged from his sacred obscurity and became 
the actual monarch of the country ; and in a few 
years established a constitutional government. 

As Shogun, Iyeyasu was a simple usurper. Born 
in 1542, he had been a military officer under the 
Shogun Hideyoshi, for some time the patron and pro- 
tector of the Christians. On the death of Hideyoshi, 
Iyeyasu rebelled against his youthful son, and, after a 
struggle lasting several years, was finally recognised 
as ruler. He immediately devoted himself to 
breaking up the power of the Daimios, compelling 
them, as feudal inferiors, to do homage to himself, 
whilst he surrounded the court of the Mikado with 
his own troops, and in fact confined him in a gilded 
prison. However unscrupulous may have been his 
methods, Japan owes to him the enjoyment of a 
really centralised government. He kept in his own 
hands many forts throughout the country which had 
hitherto been held by the Daimios ; he made great 
arterial roads through the whole country ; established 
a postal system ; and enacted ]aws, which were to 
supersede the capricious and arbitrary internal rule 



92 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



of the Daimios on their estates. He was, for his 
age, a really scientific man, and a great patron of 
literature. In fact, his rule has been called the 
Eenaissance epoch of Japan. But, on the other 
hand, he was the first to commence the bloody 
persecution of the Christians, which ended a few years 
after his death in the extermination of Christianity. 

Under his direction the Daimios were required to 
compel all Christians to renounce their faith. This 
they resisted even to blood. At length they were 
forced to take up arms, and raised the standard of 
rebellion for the first time in Japanese history, for 
hitherto their wars had been rather faction fights 
than rebellions. The struggle continued for several 
years, from 1606 to 1615. For some time the 
Christians maintained their independence, until in 
1611 Iyeyasu is said to have discovered a plot 
manipulated by the Spanish friars for reducing the 
country to a condition of subjection to Spain under 
a Christian viceroy. From that time all foreigners 
were expelled and the native Christians ruthlessly 
massacred. The capture of Osaka in 1615 was fatal 
to all hopes of success by the Christian party. The 
slaughter continued for several days, and the Jesuit 
historians assert that 100,000 men perished in this 
war. The struggle, however, continued for more than 
twenty years after lyeyasu's death, and did not end 
until 1637, when the castle of Shimabara was taken, 
and 37,000 Christians massacred, and thousands of 
others hurled down the rocks previously mentioned 
in the harbour of Nagaski. 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



93 



But enough of this digression, for we have long 
since arrived at Iyeyasu's mausoleum. It is, like all 
the others, a large enclosure surrounded by, and filled 
with, cryptomerias and other large trees, with stately 
avenues mounting up the steep hills on which they 
are placed. The temple is in no case a single build- 
ing, but a group of some twenty temples, and this 
one has a gorgeous red pagoda in the wood outside, 
towering among the trees with admirable effect. On 
the outskirts are some fine houses and gardens 
fringing the avenue, into one of which we turned, 
having requested at the porter's lodge ' that we 
might be allowed humbly to raise our eyes to the 
landscape.' After noticing this interesting specimen 
of native horticulture, we turned back to the avenue, 
on the way up which are a series of lych-gate roofs 
with boards under them containing the names of 
contributors to the preservation fund of the temples, 
among them a board in English, explaining the 
appeal. Another in Japanese contained a record of 
the donations of English and American visitors. 

Within the enclosure were all the characteristic 
features which we had noticed in the temples of 
Shiba, but on a much larger scale — colossal bronze 
lamps, bells, one of them rivalling the Eussian 
castings ; great monolith pillars, etc., the gifts of 
Corean, Loochoo, and other foreign monarchs. This 
was not the only place in which we fouud historic 
evidence of the claims of Japan to some kind of 
recognition by Corea. 

Not the least interesting of the various structures 



94 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



were three long halls adjoining each other, in which 
are exhibited the possessions, clothing, armour, 
furniture, and other articles used by Iyeyasu in his 
lifetime. These are silent witnesses of the intelli- 
gence and culture of the Japan of three hundred 
years ago, and show how much was due to the 
Spanish fathers. Among them I was much struck 
by an orrery, evidently of European make, and 
various astronomical instruments, and others, which 
well illustrate the practice of the art of navigation 
before the invention of the quadrant. Our guide, 
however, considered his swords, said to be of wonder- 
fully tempered steel, as far more worth our study. 

Arranged along the gallery over the cabinets in 
which these collections were kept, was a series of 
paintings illustrating falconry as carried on in Iye- 
yasu's time, for he was evidently a sportsman as well 
as a warrior and philosopher. We had in fact an 
illustrated history of the practice of the gentle art. 
The similarity of the hoods, jesses, and other falconer's 
gear, with those in use in Europe, was very remark- 
able, as we can hardly conceive that falconry in Japan 
was derived from a European source. At the same 
time I think we have presumptive evidence that 
European and Japanese hawking have been derived 
from a common original. 

Perhaps I may be allowed to say a few more words 
on this subject, as falconry is, so far as I know, the 
only instance in historic times in which a European 
art is identical in all its methods with that of the 
Land of the Rising Sun. Investigation will probably 




JAPANESE FALCONER. 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



97 



show that Assyria was the cradle of an art that spread 
thence through the whole world, east and west. The 
earliest monumental record of falconry is a sculpture 
discovered by Sir Henry Layard at Khorsabad, re- 
presenting a falconer with a hawk on his wrist. This 
is standing evidence that hawking was practised there 
at least as early as 1700 B.C. But Japanese records 
carry us back further still, for if they may be relied 
on, falconry was practised in China centuries pre- 
viously. A Japanese historian, of whose work a 
French translation has been published, relates that 
falcons were amongst the Chinese presents made to 
princes in the time of the Hia Dynasty, supposed to 
have commenced 2205 B.C. We know from classical 
authors that falconry was practised in Central Asia, 
Persia, and India about 400 B.C. 

There is no inconsiderable literature devoted to the 
art in the Japanese language. No fewer than fourteen 
treatises on the subject are enumerated by Harting 
in his Bibliotheca Accipitraria, many of them long 
anterior to the visits of the Spaniards. Amongst the 
minutiae of the art, we may mention that, whilst 
European falconers repair broken feathers by what is 
called an imping needle, the Japanese repair a broken 
tail-feather by splicing on a new one with lacquer 
varnish. The Japanese writers on falconry mention 
the goshawk, the peregrine, the sparrow-hawk, the 
osprey, which they call the pike-catching hawk, the 
gier-falcon, which they obtain from Kamschatka, and, 
last and least, the grey shrike, which they have 
succeeded in training to catch small birds. 

H 



98 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



Hawking, however, since the revolution has 
become very much a thing of the past, and is almost 
extinct with the old feudal system, inasmuch as the new 
laws of trespass, which are very strict, preclude any. 
excepting the few who still possess great estates, from 
indulging in this pastime. Another reason of its 
decadence is probably the great increase in cultivation. 
From the series of pictures at Nikko we may infer 
that the goshawk was the favourite bird of Iyeyasu, 
for only one of them exhibited the prowess of the 
peregrine. Mr. Harting (to whose kindness I am 
indebted for permission to copy the illustration) 
infers, from the identity in almost every point of the 
practice of the falconers of the East and West, that 
the falconry of the whole world originated in India, 
and was introduced long before the historic period, 
by the Indo-Germanic race, from the plains of 
Hindustan. 

But leaving the memorials and picture gallery of 
Iyeyasu, we observed at the entrance two curiously 
carved figures of elephants, the knowledge of which 
was probably brought with Buddhism. Close by is a 
magnificent sacred pine-tree, said to have been carried 
about by Iyeyasu in his palanquin, when it was still 
small enough to be in a flower-pot. Alongside of 
this is the stable of Buddha, open in front, with an 
unfortunate piebald sacred horse ready for him to 
ride when he returns to earth. The poor animal 
stands, tied up and caparisoned, with long rows of 
saucers full of beans just out of his reach, for each of 
which the devout pay five rin (i.e. one farthing) to 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



99 



give the tantalised steed. Its groom told us, however, 
that sometimes it is taken out for exercise. It 
reminds one of the sacred bull of the Egyptians. In 
another temple the nuns perform sacred dances, 
solemn and majestic, and are glad to receive a few 
sen (halfpennies). 

One could spend hours in admiring the bold designs 
of animals and the grotesque carvings which enrich 
all the temples, both within and without, in bewilder- 
ing confusion, in which dragons, unicorns, griffons 
and phoenixes of strange devices, enough to perplex 
the most skilled heraldic student, are mingled with 
lifelike representations of lions, cattle, monkeys, foxes, 
and other creatures of every-day life. In another 
building equally lavish in its ornamentation is the 
great library of Buddhist theological works. A flight 
of steps leads to the next group of temples. One of 
the peculiarities of Nikko is that all these groups of 
buildings are on terraces as it were, raised one above 
another, and connected by wide flights of steps with 
massive stone balustrades. On the next platform is 
a collection of royal gifts ; and amongst the colossal 
lamps, bells, and stone lions is a great brass candela- 
brum of Dutch manufacture, which was pointed out 
as the feudal tribute paid by the King of Holland, 
who, they tell you, was one of the vassals of the 
Mikado. But it would be monotonous to describe 
the various temples and courtyards, or rather cloister 
garths and cathedral closes, which would repay the 
artistic connoisseur many days spent in careful 
examination. 

H 2 



100 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



We do not reach the tomb of Iyeyasu till we are at 
the summit of the small hill. It is of massive bronze, 
shaped like a small pagoda. Visitors are not allowed 
to enter within the small enclosure, although the 
whole of it can be seen. Vases of flowers and lighted 
tapers are continually renewed in front of it. 

The grouping and arrangement of these temples 
suggested a good idea of what a Greek temenos must 
have been, such as those so familiar at Baalbec and 
elsewhere, although these occupy much greater space. 
We spent two or three days in visiting the other 
temple groups, which are all worth seeing. One large 
temple is called the Hall of Meditation. It is quite 
empty, save for one semi-colossal image of Buddha, 
but is surrounded by a very wide verandah, where 
the worshippers walk round and round for hours 
repeating the name of Buddha, and counting the 
repetitions on their rosaries. In all these temples 
the enormous wooden roof, carved with all sorts of 
figures and rich in gilt and paint, is the most striking 
feature. The wonderful carved work and lacquer 
furnishing of these structures occupy pages and pages 
of the guide-books, and are interwoven with the 
history of Japan for many centuries back. It is the 
Valhalla of the nation, and the traveller who wishes 
to be inspired with the spirit of old Japan must make 
his sojourn at Nikko, and not at Tokio. 

Though many thousand natives annually visit 
Nikko as pilgrims, yet amongst all the crowds which 
we saw there seemed to be very little worship and no 
enthusiasm. They stroll quietly about like sightseers 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



101 



in Durham Cathedral, and drop a rin (-^j- penny) here 
and there into a box. The only shrines that 
apparently created devotion were those of the God of 
Wealth, represented by a fat man with a huge sack 
on his back, sitting on two great sacks of rice, and 
grinning. He gets abundance of rin, candles, and 
prayers. I should explain that in most of the temples 
there are many little shrines exactly corresponding 
to the side altars of Romish worship, which are dedi- 
cated to numerous popular or local deities, evolved 
partly from distorted traditions of Shintoism, and 
partly from the many incarnations of Buddha. 

Another popular deity is the God of Strength, who 
is represented with enormous arms and calves. His 
shrine was heaped with offerings of pairs of tiny clogs 
and old sandals, and his devotees pray to him that 
their calves may develop muscles as strong as his. 
He is the popular deity of the jinriksha men. In one 
very rich temple three colossal wooden statues were 
conspicuous, painted respectively red, green, and blue. 
The green monster was the God of Wind, carrying 
the winds, like iEolus, in a bag. The God of Thunder 
was red, hurling a thunderbolt, very like a statue of 
Jupiter. The third figure is, I believe, a representa- 
tion of a mythological protector of Buddha. This 
temple struck me as one of the most beautiful, largely 
owing to the effect of the magnificent cryptomerias 
and noble rhododendrons grouped around it. 

The wonderful temples and collection of Japanese 
art are not the only attractions of Nikko. For any 
one sound in wind and limb it is an admirable centre 



102 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



for excursions. In every direction we found long 
and lovely walks up the valleys, with mountains 
towering above, their summits still covered with 
snow, and their lower slopes painted with the pink 
and crimson bloom of trees of various kinds, some 
of them unknown to me. Turning round in our 
scrambles, we looked down on mountain streams 
dashing over the boulders, while the ground of the 
open forest was covered with the bright red flowers 
of the creeping Pyrus japonica, varied by the sombre 
clusters of dog-violet. We could scarcely go a mile 
without coming across waterfalls, any one of which 
would have made the fortune of a German or a Swiss 
pleasure resort. 

A very interesting but not loug expedition is 
that to Kamman-ga-fuchi, by a path up the river-side. 
Half an hour from Nikko by the roadside, just front- 
ing the river, was the most exquisite little miniature 
park and house with a little shrine, all in perfect 
order ; in every respect a typical Japanese gem. 
Attached to it was a tea-house, the landlady of which 
showed us about, presented us with bouquets of 
flowers, and, seeing I was interested in her horti- 
culture, with true national courtesy took me round, 
giving me the Japanese names of the various shrubs. 
This was all done without any expectation of a 
douceur, which when offered was waved back with 
the expression Do itasliimaskite ? or £ What have I 
done ? ' though eventually accepted. 

The path follows along for some distance the 
winding course of the stream, till we arrived at 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



105 



Kamman-ga-fuchi, where, ranged on the other side 
of the river, are a long row of images of Buddha, 
about a hundred in number. Nothing is known 
authentically of their origin or meaning, but we were 
told that it is impossible to count them accurately, 
and that however often the feat is attempted, the 
conclusion is always different. This superstition is 
not peculiar to Japan, for the same thing is said of 
various circles of Druidical stones in England. 

Although without a history, a visit to these 
Buddhas, and the lovely, if not grand, scenery, amply 
repays the walk. Not the, least interesting to me 
was the introduction it afforded me to many of the 
native birds for the first time. The Japanese 
ornithology is peculiarly interesting to a British 
naturalist, from its close resemblance to, as well as 
its marked difference from, our British fauna. The 
most conspicuous and attractive bird in this walk 
was the Japanese pied wagtail (very much larger, and 
with the black and white in its plumage more 
strikingly contrasted than in our own), which con- 
tinually flitted across our path, or ran in the road in 
front of us. The trees and shrubs were ceaselessly 
visited by little flocks of various kinds of titmice, 
some identical with, and others very close to, our 
own. Family parties of the schoolboy's favourite, 
the long-tailed or bottle tit, were seldom absent 
from view. The representative of the great tit, with 
exactly the same note as our own, the marsh and 
the cole were everywhere in evidence ; and the con- 
spicuous chestnut, black, and white titmouse (Parus 



106 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



varius) peculiar to Japan, and its favourite cage-bird, 
was most abundant of all. 

Leaving what I call the glen of the Buddhas, we 
mounted the hill by a not too steep ascent and 
visited various cascades, whose quaint Japanese 
names I need not inflict upon my readers, but which 
may be translated, one as the ' vermicelli cascade,' 
another as the ' mist falling,' a very appropriate 
name ; and another as the ' pillow cascade,' why so 
named I know not. All these have a fall of from 
fifty to sixty feet, and at the time of our visit were 
unusually fine, owing to the melted snow. We were 
rather too early for the botany, but there were 
already many interesting ferns unfolding their fronds, 
several of which, especially an aspidium, were entirely 
new to me. But in every department of natural 
history, the birds, the butterflies, the fishes, the botany, 
the same difficulty arises. Everything bears a strong 
resemblance to the fauna and flora of Europe, and yet 
almost always there is a difference, less so perhaps in 
the birds than in anything else. That laughing, 
screaming jay among those maples overhead, you 
would say, was undoubtedly our own jay to the 
minutest particular, and yet if you were to handle 
him, he is different, but only by a black streak from 
his beak to his eye, where our jay is chestnut. And 
so the bullfinch, identical at first sight with our bird- 
fancier's darling and gardener's abomination, voice, 
flight, nest, and eggs un distinguishable ; but we shall 
always find the native of Japan with a ruddy tinge 
on the back, and less decisive red on the breast, yet 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



107 



bullfinch all the world over. And so with the 
butterflies. Though the characteristic forms of Japan 
often rival the Indian in splendour, and infinitely 
surpass our own in variety, these do not appear till 
the summer is further advanced ; but our ramble was 
enlivened by the hovering of familiar acquaintances, 
especially the common cabbage white and pale clouded 
yellow. These two species are identical with our 
own. Along with these, but in sparser numbers, 
were representatives of our early spring friends, an 
orange tip and a brimstone. 

Our next expedition was very much longer, and 
was one of the most charming rambles which we 
enjoyed in the whole country. It was to the Lake 
of Chusenji. We had to make an early start, for it 
is a five hours' walk and a steady ascent nearly the 
whole way, through wild scrub and forest, the whole 
of which is an imperial preserve where Nature has 
full sway ; though I fear that in Japan, as in 
England, the genus poacher exists in spite of royal 
and imperial edicts. As we left the road which for a 
mile or two we had traversed yesterday, and entered 
a, pathway up the hillside, a large notice slab attracted 
our attention, warning the visitor that the killing 
or snaring of living things in any manner was for- 
bidden by imperial command. I am afraid it does 
not speak well for the reputation of our countrymen 
that half-way up, at the tea-house where travellers 
halt, we found a similar notice in English as well as 
in the vernacular. 

Our path lay by the edge of a deep gorge, with a 



108 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



swollen stream dashing far beneath, and for the first 
four miles cultivated ground intermingled with cop- 
pice. The front seemed to be barred by a snow- 
capped volcanic mountain range with many jagged 
peaks, the highest of which, Nantaizan, is laid down 
as 8,300 feet. Men were fishing in the most 
tempting-looking trout pools, and rapidly filling 
their creels from the milky turbid water with a kind 
of trout, with crimson bellies and silver spots. These 
sportsmen were courteous and friendly, and proud to 
exhibit their tackle, which was really very clever. 
Their rods were simple bamboo stems. They had a 
good assortment of flies in little boxes, among them 
salmon flies, made of what seemed to me golden 
pheasant feathers. They told me they used these in 
the lake above, though the river seemed an arduous 
one for the most agile of salmon to attempt. I was 
told that there is abundance of salmon in the lake, 
but this was not the season for them. The streams 
are well stocked with smaller fry of various species, 
which I will not attempt to name. We soon began 
to climb the steep mountain-side by a rough path, 
occasionally cut for a long distance out of the cliff, 
high above the stream. We were in a forest of 
cryptomeria, pine, fir (Abies tsuga), maple, alder, oak, 
birch, and larch, not yet in leaf. 

The gigantic cryptomerias were a grand sight, 
and occasionally a tall fir towered above all the sur- 
rounding hard- wood trees. But with few exceptions 
the deciduous trees and ferns were only just budding. 
I here saw the Japanese robin and hedge-sparrow 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



109 



for the first time, both very like our own, and 
exactly resembling them in note and habits, though 
in Japan they are both exclusively mountain birds, 
said never to be found lower than 4,000 feet, and 
consequently are the rarest of J apanese birds in collec- 
tions. One large tree, not in leaf, but covered with 
sheets of large rosy blossoms of an open trumpet shape, 
monopetalous, called by our men the yasu, we could 
not make out. It only grows at a considerable 
altitude, and, in fact, generally the unmelted snow 
carpeted the ground where it was in flower. Here it 
was so abundant as to make up for the want of 
foliage in the other trees, and contrasted beautifully 
with the dark firs and cryptomerias. There were 
plenty of species of thuyas and other smaller trees 
strange to me. One of the most striking features of 
this forest were the festoons of a long trailing moss 
(Lycopodium Sieboldi), which with its tendrils forms 
fleecy pendants from each bough, and at a distance 
these have the effect of a silvery mist enveloping 
the tree. 

Some fine cascades varied the scene, and here and 
there a chalet-like tea-house was perched on the edge 
of a bluff commanding some fine view of a waterfall 
or ravine. We halted at more than one of them, and 
enjoyed green tea at half a farthing a cup, with a 
morsel of green bean cake and a sugar-plum thrown 
in. The situation of these tea-houses is another 
instance of the inborn love of natural beauty so 
characteristic of the people. On a moist bank behind 
one of these tea-houses I found large clumps of 



110 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



Primula japonica, and it was interesting to note 
that the colours were as varied in the wild as in the 
cultivated specimens in our gardens, though possibly 
these may have been stragglers from cultivation. 

The road or track had been washed away in 
many places by recent floods, and we often had to 
pass and repass the stream by what seemed perilously 
slender bamboo and straw foot-bridges, which, as 
they had no hand-rails, demanded all one's nerve to 
make a safe passage, the bridge being simply three 
or four very long bamboos thrown across the gully, 
and wisps of rice straw plaited between them. But 
we soon found that they were not difficult to use, so 
long as only one passenger at a time attempts the 
feat, the straw wisps affording a foot-hold that, at 
least, does not slip. Perhaps they are not more 
permanent than the plaited straw sandals, or waraji, 
which strew the paths everywhere, and which can 
be bought for a penny a pair at every wayside shop 
and tea-house, and which last but a few days, and are 
then flung aside, the wearer being equally at home 
with or without his sandals. Towards the end of a 
long day I often felt sorely tempted to discard my 
heavy European shoes and. slitting the end of my 
stocking, to adopt the light and airy waraji, which is 
only fastened by a couple of wisps passing between 
the great and other toes, and then round the ankle. 

A less steep but far more circuitous road to the 
sacred lake was being constructed, and several times 
intersected our path. It was evidently engineered 
with great skill, for this is a science to which the 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



111 



Japanese have applied themselves with great energy 
and success. The horses employed in the cuttings 
for drawing the trolleys were all shod, not with iron 
shoes, but with straw sandals like their masters, 
fastened on like the leather slippers which our horses 
wear in drawing lawn-mowers. This was not the 
only new road in course of construction, for the 
whole neighbourhood of Nikko was as full of road 
repairing as though a new County Council had just 
come into office. On inquiring why so much was 
being done to the roads, we were informed that as 
the honourable visit of the great Czarovitch of Russia 
was looked for in a few weeks, they wished to have 
all the roads in the best possible condition, and a 
considerable sum was being spent on them. Owing, 
however, to the untoward event to be mentioned 
later on in our rambles, the imperial visit to Nikko 
was never accomplished. 

At length we arrive at the Lake of Chusenji, a 
great mountain tarn, in a wide mountain amphi- 
theatre, the steep slopes of which are thickly wooded 
everywhere to the water's edge. It is about eight 
miles long and not quite three wide, about 4,500 feet 
above the sea. The road suddenly opens upon one 
end of the lake, affording a view along its whole 
length. We proceed through a long wooden village, 
with a monotonous row of sheds or huts on one side, 
all shut up, the lodgings of the pilgrims who crowd 
to this holy place in summer. The Shinto temple 
is said to have been founded by Shodo Shonin a 
thousand and eighty years ago, and the grounds are 



112 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



looked upon as sacred, and can only be entered on 
foot. The side of the village nearest the lake before 
one reaches the temple is lined with shops and tea- 
houses, provided with charming balconies over- 
hanging the lake, and with a lovely view of the 
mountains ; and beneath boats lie idly moored, 
irresistibly inviting us to an excursion. 

Here we were treated in real country fashion. 
Our guest-chamber on the first floor was one with 
the verandah overhanging the calm blue waters, 
and on the matting we sat. Brightly clad damsels 
carried tiny square lacquer tables, about six inches 
high, which they set before us, but considerately 
supplied us with futon (wadded quilts rolled up) on 
which to lean ; a delicate consideration for our 
Western uncouthness. One little table was set 
before each guest, on which were little saucers of 
exquisite mountain trout, seaweed soup, and — the 
one delicacy which we never could be brought to 
endure — daikon, a sort of decayed radish. These 
delicacies, however, we supplemented by substantial 
brought from the valley below. After a rest of two 
or three hours we investigated the sights of the 
place, and returned by a slightly different route, 
which enabled us to see another fine cascade, 350 
feet. It was dark long before we had reached our 
delicious little inn, thoroughly tired and as thoroughly 
happy. We found our arrival awaited by a circle of 
vendors of curios, lacquer-ware, bronzes, photos, and 
bird-skins, for our fame had evidently spread, visitors 
being very rare at this time of year. But not even 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



113 



the bird-skins could keep us awake, and we promptly 
retired to our well-earned rest. 

During the night we were occasionally roused by 
the sound as of the swish of a dozen shower-baths 
combined, but our little wooden doll-house, thin as 
were its boards, turned the rain well. So deep were 




LAKE OF CHTJSENJI. 

the eaves that in the morning we found even the 
verandahs dry, though the rain ceased not the 
whole day. It was the first wet day I had had in 
Japan, and I only had one more during my visit, 
and it also was a Sunday. To take a walk was 
out of the question, but our friends from the foreign 
hotel joined us for morning service, as well as a 
young native, a friend of our landlord, and, so far 

i 



114 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



as we knew, the only Christian in Nikko. He was 
an intelligent young man who often came in to 
offer his services as interpreter if required, or to 
tell us the traditions of the place. He had been 
five years in California, where he had joined the 
Christian Church and been baptized. He had settled 
here as a teacher of English. That a young man of 
superior position can find it worth while to establish 
himself in a small, out-of-the-way country town as a 
teacher of English, shows the rapidity with which the 
study of our language is advancing. 

In fact, as I shall have occasion to mention later, 
the only foreign languages that seem to have any 
attraction for this people are English and Chinese. 
The latter most naturally, as it is the vehicle through 
which they have received all their religious and 
moral teaching, for the aboriginal religion of Shinto- 
ism has no literature, and the Buddhist classics which 
are studied are in the Chinese language ; while their 
whole moral teaching is based upon Confucianism, all 
the treatises on which are in the same tongue. It 
should be understood that in Japanese literature the 
characters used are Chinese, the inflections and 
particles being added in the Japanese syllabary, or 
kana, as it is called. The Chinese being an un- 
inflected language, and structurally utterly distinct 
from Japanese, the latter have adopted the Chinese 
sign for the root-word, to which they affix kana or 
syllabic signs as may be required. Moreover, before 
the opening of the country to foreigners they had 
some external and diplomatic dealings with China, 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



115 



which rendered the language a useful accomplishment 
both to the statesman and the merchant. All these 
facts have led to the incorporation of many Chinese 
words in the learned language, though their pro- 
nunciation would be unintelligible to a Chinaman. 
With the opening of the country to trade, to foreign 
inventions, and to modern science, has arisen the 
necessity for a limitless addition of scientific terms 
to the language. To meet this want the Japanese 
have never adopted English words, but have gone to 
Chinese, exactly as we do to Greek for terms relating 
to steam, electricity, navigation, and the like. 

Our visitor evidently enjoyed the service, though 
perhaps a somewhat lukewarm Christian. Yet how, 
as he remarked, could his faith do otherwise than 
' get thin,' according to the Japanese idiom, when 
alone, without one fellow-believer to sympathise with 
him, in this very centre of Japanese Buddhism ! 

In the afternoon the clouds still continued their 
ceaseless downpour, and my daughter succeeded in 
gathering in our parlour, out of which the table and 
two chairs were cleared, a little company of the 
young Christian, the wife, family, and servants of 
Mr. Kanaya, our landlord, and several of the 
neighbours. They all sat round the room on the 
mats, my daughter, in the centre, reading and 
explaining by means of Scripture pictures the Gospe 
story, and keeping up their eager attention for a 
couple of hours. 

Mr. Kanaya, as a member of the choir of one of 
the Buddhist temples, supplied me with a set of altar 

I 2 



116 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



furniture in bronze which had become his perquisite 
on being replaced by a newer set. They would almost 
have served for a Eomish altar, consisting of two 
candlesticks, a pair of flower- vases, a paten for rice, a 
small incense censer, and a little acolyte's bell. In 
addition, I obtained a set of Buddhist priest's robes, 
the cassock being light green, the alb represented by 
a pale drab vest, whilst an embroidered tippet would 
admirably do duty for a chasuble, and a green stole 
embroidered in gold completed the outfit. There is 
nothing new under the sun ! 

We spent another day in visiting other groups 
of temples, to describe which would be in the main 
a repetition of the former account ; and afterwards 
walked up a magnificent avenue of cryptomerias 
shading a finely paved road. Many of the trees are 
seven feet in diameter, but their height is greater 
in proportion. We measured one of them by the 
simple method which I have often employed in calcu- 
lating the height of ruins ; that is, by using a long 
stick and comparing the length of its shadow with 
that of the tree, then calculating by proportion the 
height of the tree from the length of the stick. We 
found its height to be 160 feet. These trees are said 
to be the tallest in the world next to the sequoias of 
California. In the wood a number of very curious 
plants rewarded our research, especially a sort of 
giant Herb Paris, with three leaves instead of four — 
the badge of the Tokugawa Shogun family. But as 
it was only just in leaf, I had no means of ascer- 
taining its botanical character. Every now and then 




BUDDHIST PRIEST. 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



119 



at the side of the path was a little niche scooped out 
in the rock, in which was placed a miniature little 
Buddha, very delicately carved in wood, some of 
them not more than six inches high, and the remains 
of a few tapers in front, recalling the little wayside 
shrines of Italy or Spain. I was sorely tempted to 
pocket one of these interesting relics, but did not 
feel myself justified in acting the iconoclast, though 
I argued that it might be a very efficient way of 
suppressing Buddhism. 

Another charming little expedition was to the 
cascade of Xanataki. The walk afforded every variety 
of native scenery — dashing mountain torrents, rickety 
bamboo bridges, pine-woods, picturesque tea-houses, 
and fairv little earclens with their lakes and bridges, 
the former full of goldfish. Wherever a little rock 
or edge of a bluff offered a site with an attractive 
landscape, there was sure to be perched a tea-house. 
In a wood was a sequestered cemetery, where the 
ashes of those cremated are deposited under tiny 
obelisks. There was one new handsome obelisk with 
a long inscription, all picked out in red, and a toy 
shrine in front of it with bright flowers planted 
around. The red paint signifies that the hero of the 
monument is still living, for those who can afford it 
like to put them up and inscribe their epitaphs in 
their lifetime. At length we reached a tea-house on 
the top of a hill, and from it looked down into the 
next valley, with a fine waterfall, perhaps 200 feet 
high. I was content with the distant prospect, 
though the proper proceeding would have been to 



120 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



scramble down the steep side of the mountain, and 
then, despising the drenching from the spray, to get 
between the water and the cliff. As a naturalist my 
time was not wasted, for, whether it were yesterday's 
rain or this morning's bright sun, one or other had 
evoked a number of butterflies, who emerged for the 
first time from their chrysalides. 

On our return we had, as usual, a levee of curio- 
mongers, and certainly our fastidiousness on former 
evenings had induced them to briug some really good 
bits of old bronze, etc. But most satisfactory to me 
was the return of a man and a boy who had brought 
a few bird-skins the first evening, and who had been 
evidently surprised by my taking the whole consign- 
ment. I had told the bearer to bring some more. On 
this occasion the collector himself appeared with his 
lad with between two and three hundred skins, very 
neatly made, all labelled and ticketed with Japanese 
name, place, and date. Recognising some of the 
labels as being of a type familiar to me at home, I 
inquired what he usually did with his birds. He 
explained that he had been for several years employed 
by an Englishman, who was now dead, to whom he 
used to send all he collected. I soon ascertained that 
he had been employed by the late Mr. H. Pryer, 
through whom I had obtained many specimens. 
Unfortunately the locality usually given had been 
Yokohama, whereas all these birds were collected in 
the forests round Nikko, and at a height of from three 
to eight thousand feet above the sea. No wonder 
that English writers have gone astray as to the 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



121 



localities of the birds of Japan. It was pretty much 
as if the dotterels and rin^-ousels of Cross Fell should 
be labelled ' Obtained at Liverpool.' I found both 
him and his lad most intelligent and delightful 
enthusiasts. Along with the bird-skins were specimens 
of no less than five species of squirrel. The lad 
explained to me in word and pantomime the homes 
and habits of each species. Amongst them were two 
or three skins of a very large species, which he stated 
to me was found in summer only in the pine-forests 
near the mountain top ; but in winter, during heavy 
snowstorms, he declared that, uulike any other kind, 
these creatures came down to the villages (we are 
speaking, of course, of villages of higher altitude than 
Mkko), and when they saw at night a light through 
the walls of a cottage, would break a hole through 
the paper, and, entering without ceremony, put out 
the candle and eat it. I give this story for what it 
is worth ; but it certainly was not only vouched for 
by the lad and his employer, but attested by all the 
by-sitters. His collection comprised more than a 
hundred species of birds, but he had seldom brought 
more than a pair of each, all carefully sexed. I took 
them up one by one, and at once the note was 
imitated, and often the action of the bird, as in the 
case of the woodpeckers, with inimitable pantomime. 
Whether it were the jerking of the black water-ousel 
or dipper, the skimming of the swallow, the dash of 
the swift, the chatter of the jay, or the sudden whistle 
of the bush-warbler as it darts up a reed, each one 
was perfectly represented as I leisurely took up one 



122 



RAMBLES IN JAP AX 



after another from the pile and asked, ' What is the 
name of this ? What does it do ? ' 

I found that my visitor had lately received an 
order from a dealer at Yokohama to supply a 
complete set of birds for an English collector, for 
whom these were intended. I offered him, however, 
a reasonable price for the whole, which he willingly 
accepted, though he told me — what I quite believe — 
that he charged his Yokohama customer three times 
the price. I suspect that very few of these birds were 
shot ; in fact, the collector told me that he captured 
the smaller species with bird-lime, and the larger, 
including the pheasants, with hair-springes. One 
characteristic bird was conspicuous by its absence. 
There were no cranes in the collection. Although 
live species are known as belonging to Japan, and 
three of them, the white-naped, white-headed, and 
especially the sacred crane, are frequently semi- 
domesticated in parks, public and private, and are 
familiar as continually recurring in Japanese art, yet 
I fear their fate in Japan in the near future is that of 
their congeners in England — extinction. I only once 
m the course of my rambles saw a flock of wild cranes 
— at least near enough to identify them — and this 
was in the Inland Sea, where a V-shaped party of the 
white-naped crane passed overhead. My friend, 
however, did not admit their extinction, but assured 
me he was far too loyal a subject of the Mikado and 
reverencer of the gods to commit the crime of 
molesting: this sacred bird. 

It must have been midnight before our ornitho- 



A VISIT TO NIKKO 



123 



logical seance came to an end — perhaps the most 
instructive natural-history lecture that I ever enjoyed. 
But all things come to an end, even a visit to Nikko, 
though we were loth to tear ourselves away from this 
fascinating spot and its surroundings. The final 
reckoning with our host was to me a most amusing 
illustration of the national courtesies. Mr. Kanaya 
acted as though the production of his bill were the 
most painful effort, and at length reluctantly he 
brought it forth, consisting of a number of Chinese 
scrawls on strips of tissue-paper. On bended knees 
and forehead touching the mat did my friend push it 
forward ; I, bowing as well as my stiff Western back 
would permit me, placed the proper sum, wrapped in 
thin white paper, before him, for nothing is more 
ill-bred than to hand coin without its being wrapped 
in paper. Again it was received with bowing, low, 
lower, lowest ; but it is always the rule of politeness 
to pay something more than the bill — in fact, to pay 
an hotel bill net would be considered an insult, or at 
least a mark of great dissatisfaction. Therefore, 
wrapping a yen (dollar) in white paper, I added it 
with low bows. It was returned with lower, and 
finally pressed upon the host with still more profound 
inclinations, and was at length duly and gratefully 
received. The bright little waiting-maid received her 
yen with the same show of modest reluctance. 



124 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



CHAPTER IV 

THE HAKONE LAKE 



Returning from Nikko to Tokio was quitting the 
world of romance and ancient history to enter that 
of modern civilisation and fashion. We remained a 
few days under Bishop Bickersteth's hospitable roof, 
and diversified sight-seeing with much social inter- 
course, very Western in its character. We enjoyed 
parties official, ecclesiastical, and antiquarian, and 
under the happiest auspices made acquaintance with 
many charming cultured and literary residents of 
various nationalities. Not the least interesting was 
an evening with my old Palestine collaborator, 
General Palmer, R.E., now employed officially by 
the Japanese Government ; and another evening 
with Dr. Whitney, the Secretary to the United 
States Legation, full of information, not only on 
Japanese history and politics, but also — which was 
to me a great boon — on the botany of the country. 
He supplied me with what proved invaluable in 
our subsequent rambles — a portable botanical press 
and a large supply of botanical paper, as well as a 
catalogue of the flora of Japan, in Japanese and 
Latin, to be the nucleus of my Japanese library. 
Before leaving Tokio, it was rather alarming to dis- 



THE HAKONE LAKE 



127 



cover how truly we had verified the saying so far that 
the buying mania seizes everyone on landing, and 
never leaves them till they quit the shores. The 
packing of all our purchases, armour, swords, bronzes, 
birds, etc., and despatching them to Yokohama, was 
a good day's work. 

And now we are on the rail again for a fifty miles' 
run to Kozu. We had lovely peeps of Fuji San with 
her mantle of snow, recalling to me both in shape and 
situation the Peak of TenerifTe, which it very nearly 
equals in height. Fuji, indeed, for many days con- 
tinued to be the central point round which our 
journeys revolved. From its immense height, so far 
excelling any other mountain in the central range, 
or backbone of Japan, from which it is separated by a 
wide extent of irregular plain, it gives from many 
points of view the impression of a mountain rising 
out of the sea in solitary state. No natural feature 
is so repeatedly depicted in the art of Japan, whether 
ceramic, pictorial, or poetic. The native appreciation 
of its central grandeur may be illustrated by an 
expression in a sermon of a young Japanese clergy- 
man, that the verse, ' God so loved the world that 
He gave His only begotten Son' (John iii. 16), was 
the Fuji San of the Bible. Great and widespread 
was the consternation during the earthquake that 
occurred shortly after my visit, when the report was 
spread, and credited, that Fuji San had been destroyed. 
It was spoken of, not only as the greatest possible 
national loss, but as the most terrible omen for the 
future. Correspondingly great was the rejoicing when 



128 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



it was understood that the beloved and sacred 
mountain still raised her snowy peak heavenward, 
though a slight landslip had occurred on part of the 
slope. 

The railway deposited us at Kozu, where we had 
a short stroll on the beach, with a love]y view of the 
Bay of Odawara, and in the far distance the volcanic 
island of Enoshima, a reproduction of the Lipari 
Islands of the Mediterranean, and whose volcano is still 
as active as theirs. We then transferred ourselves to 
the tram car which was to convey us to Yamoto, for, 
the traffic hardly promising to be remunerative enough 
for a railway, the Japanese, decidedly in advance of 
ourselves in these matters, at once laid down a tram- 
line, while we are talking of light railways in aid of 
agriculture. "We found the tramcars were divided 
into three classes, and, according to our usual custom, 
took second-class tickets. We were amused afterwards 
to find that the three omnibuses were identical in 
their appointments, and that the only distinction was 
that the first class preceded us by a few yards, and 
gave us the benefit of their dust, which we passed on, 
plus our own, to our more economical third-class 
followers. The road wound up a lovely valley, by 
the side of a turbulent torrent, and much resembled 
the drive to Balmoral by the Birks of Aberfeldy. 
Close to the starting-place at Odawara were the 
remains of what was once a very famous Daimio's 
castle, which was destroyed during the late revolution. 
From 1490 it was for more than a century the seat of 
government of the Shoguns of the Hojo line. The 



THE HAKONE LAKE 



129 



name is preserved in a common Japanese proverb 
which applies to any purposeless chattering the 
expression, ' an Odawara Conference.' The phrase is 
said to have originated from the Hojo chiefs, who had 
retired to their castle after a battle with the celebrated 
General Hideyoshi, spending some days in discussing 
the point whether it were better to attack the enemy, 
or to allow him to invest their stronghold. "While 
they were unable to come to any conclusion. Hideyoshi 
solved the problem by a sudden onslaught, in which 
he stormed the fortress. Hence the proverb, an 
admirable illustration of the' saying of our great 
general, Councils of war never tight.' 

The tram runs parallel with the old Tokaido — i.e. 
the eastern sea-road — beautifully paved and macada - 
mised with small pebbles, very narrow, and lined by 
grand old pines and cryptomerias, chiefly the former, 
forming an avenue of 3 SO miles between the capitals 
of the Mikado and the Shogun. It was. in fact, the 
o-reat arterial line of the countrv, though now, with 
its wavside tea-houses, as deserted as our own o-reat 

J o 

North Eoad. ' The old order changeth. and oiveth 
place to new.' 

Earlier writers on Japan, from the Dutch down- 
wards, have given glowing pictures of the magnificence, 
the stir and bustle of the Tokaido of former times : of 
the Daimios in their ponderous palanquins, attended 
with their hundreds of henchmen, the two-sworded 
Samurai, resplendent in lacquered armour, as twice a 
year they made their leisurely procession to do homage 
to the Shogun. By the Tokaido all the inland com- 

K 



130 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



merce of the country was carried on packhorses ; the 
whole line, we are told, was as crowded as the 
thoroughfares of a great city. Indeed, it must have 
been so, to judge by the countless tea-houses, many of 
them now deserted, which flank the avenue on either 
side. Public conveyances there were none, and as all 
travellers, except the few Daimios in their palanquins, 
made their journey on foot, and the Japanese travel 
very leisurely, the sleeping accommodation required 
must have been very great. One of the oldest English 
residents in Japan told us, at the Embassy, that he 
remembered before the revolution the processions of 
the Daimios along the Tokaido with their regiments 
of armed retainers, and how outrunners preceded them, 
compelling not only the common sort, but also Daimios 
of lesser degree, to stand out of the way as they passed. 
Even now the custom is still retained, not only on the 
road, but in Tokio and other towns, of outrunners on 
foot preceding the gentry, whether on horseback or in 
their carriages. Thus, but thirty years ago, one 
might have here beheld an exact reproduction of the 
spectacle of the feudal lords of Europe and their armed 
retainers. 

Arrived at the tram terminus, Yamoto, we soon 
experienced the inconvenience of being on a foreigner- 
frequented track. We were still four miles from Miya- 
no-Shita, and we were encumbered with more than 
we could carry ourselves. The jinriksha men crowded 
round us like Arabs at Alexandria ; though with the 
vociferations the likeness ends, for they were far 
too polite to seize our baggage, still less to drag us 




K 2 



THE HAKONE LAKE 



133 



by force to their own vehicles. We quietly sat down 
on the seat in front of the tea-house, assuming an air 
of perfect indifference as to whether we remained there 
for the day or not. We were assured it was impossible 
for us to walk. We smiled, and replenished our cups 
of green tea. On our asserting our firm intention of 
walking, the crowd looked at our baggage — a small 
portmanteau and two hold-alls — and assured us we 
could not carry it. ' We shall walk, and it may be 
carried,' we said, and more tea was sipped. ' It will 
take four jinrikshas,' they said. ' Two will be ample,' 
we replied. ' But these jinrikshas are not like the 
Tokio ones that you know,' they objected. We told 
them to go by the road, and we were going round by 
the mountain. ' That is impossible,' was the reply ; 
' the road is closed.' ' Then we will open it,' we 
answer, and are utterly unmoved by all arguments. 

Seeing us calm and imperturbable, and not in the 
least hurried, two of them at length started with very 
easy loads by the road, and told us we should meet 
at the Naraya Hotel. We had a good travelling map, 
and felt no doubt as to our being able to find the way 
without a guide, although we had to cross a wooded 
mountain, round which the road makes a detour, and 
descend into the next valley, where we were certain 
to intersect the highway. It was fortunate that our 
further adventures were out of sight from Yamoto, 
for we missed the path, and after pulling ourselves 
through dense underwood of aucuba, deutzia, weigelia, 
and wisteria, up an almost perpendicular mountain, 
we found the scrub becoming really impenetrable, and 



134 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



were compelled after half an hour to retrace our steps 
to the main road. Our amour-propre would have been 
too sorely tried by the humiliation of going back to 
Yamoto to seek a guide ; but we descended upon the 
next village, and soon found a man who knew the 
track, and who was willing to guide us. It was indeed 
a climb, even though we found the true route, but 
once arrived at the summit we were richly rewarded. 
We found ourselves on the crest of the ridge which 
forms the centre of the promontory province of Izu. 
Standing where we were, we could look down on either 
side into a deep mountain gorge, and following the 
ravine with our eye we could see where each opened 
into the Pacific Ocean on the right and the left of the 
mountain chain. Turning to the right, Fuji towered 
in front of us, her sides girdled with a cloud-belt ; 
mountain ranges ran parallel on either side, affording 
a grand, though by no means overwhelming, pano- 
rama. We had now nothing to do but to follow the 
ridge westward until the path should rapidly descend 
to Miya-no-Shita. We dismissed our courteous 
guide, and walked for another hour and a half along 
the ridge, sometimes wooded and sometimes open. 
There were one or two marshy spots, the botany of 
which was quite novel to us, and we found some 
magnificent ladies' slipper [Cypripedium japonicum) 
in full blossom, with their enormous fan-shaped, flat 
leaves. It is very rare, and the queen of Japanese 
wildflowers, as is our species, though, alas ! almost 
extinct, of the British flora. It is a curious 
coincidence that, as Sowerby a hundred years ago 



THE HAK0NE LAKE 



135 



commenced his great work on British botany with an 
illustration of our ladies' slipper, so the illustrated 
history of the flora of Japan, begun, I believe, at an 
earlier date, and reaching to over a hundred volumes, 
of which the latter portion are only in manuscript, 
commences with a beautiful hand-coloured represen- 
tation of this native species. 

The sun was setting when we descended upon the 
road, a mile or two from Miya-no-Shita, and we soon 
reached our hotel, the Naraya, perched on a hillside 
amongst babbling hot streams and quaint artificial 
gardens. There was not much of the romantic 
within, though everything that could be desired for 
creature-comfort. Foreign furniture and fare at 
foreign prices are already established in this great 
health-resort — the Harrogate of Japan. We had just 
ordered dinner, when we were informed that a young 
Japanese gentleman requested an interview, or rather, 
as it was expressed, ' to hang on our honourable 
eyes.' With much ceremony he was ushered in, and 
with still more ceremony explained to us that he had 
espied the cypripedium protruding from my vasculum 
as we entered, and was anxious to know where we 
had found it, as he, too, was a botanist, and had been 
searching for it in vain for some days. For the 
information we gave him and for a specimen of the 
plant with root and bloom he overwhelmed us with 
gratitude. This, however, being one of the foreign 
hotels, it is patronised by very few natives, who 
generally, when visiting the springs, board at the 
many tea-houses in the villages round. 



136 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



The next day was Sunday, and the second, and 
last, wet day I encountered during our rambles. We 
went up to the other foreign hotel, where we found a 
number of fellow-countrymen, and, thanks to the 
storm, had a fairly numerous company for Divine 
Service in the saloon. Thanks to the admirable 
postal arrangements of the country, we received a 
large batch of letters which had pursued us from 
place to place. The postal officials do not, as at 
home, disfigure the face of the letter or card by re- 
addressing it, but simply write the next address on a 
slip of tissue-paper, which is gummed at the edge and 
folded back over the missive. If it has again to be 
re-addressed, the same process is repeated, and thus 
I have a halfpenny post-card with eleven pages of 
address folded on to it, one after another, and which 
reached me at length without extra charge. 

We spent a couple of days in exploring this lovely 
mountain glen. The charms of its position cannot be 
spoiled by all the efforts which enterprising hotel- 
keepers are making to Europeanise it. The constant 
appearance of English under the Chinese characters 
on the signboards of the shops, prevalent in Tokio 
and elsewhere, extends even to the villages. We 
came across some wonderful examples of ' English as 
she is spoke.' For instance, at the entrance to the 
grounds of the Naraya Hotel is the following notice : 
' No trees and any flowers permitted to take off in 
this gardens. No fish permitted to catch in this 
ponds.' A man in the village has a horse to hire. 
On his signboard is a drawing of a man on horseback, 



THE HAKONE LAKE 



137 



and below simply the words, ' Lend horse.' On 
another board I read, 'Fujinei Tel. To let, the above- 
named tea-house, on the top of this hill. There 
mount Fuji on the up and island Enoshima on the 
down can be seen when weather is most splendidly. 
Leader, O-Niuga ' (leader being Japanese English for 
owner or agent). Over a parcels delivery office near 
a station in Tokio was the following : ' Before station 
send at home and every state.' 

After the rain the sun seemed rapidly to bring out 
the butterflies and to unfold the fern-fronds, the 
search for which gave zest to our rambles through 
these highland-like glens, affording continual change 
of landscape and partial peeps of Fuji San. But 
however many hours we wandered, the natural hot 
bath on our return would reinvigorate the most 
wearied. One noticed the change of colour each day, 
as the trees rushed out into foliage under the glowing 
sunshine, and the reeking moisture of the recent rain- 
fall. One gentleman declared that he measured a 
young bamboo before going in to breakfast, and after 
breakfast. It had meanwhile reached another button 
of his waistcoat ; and I quite believe him. My 
daughter, however, was inclined to suspect that he 
had changed his shoes for a thicker pair in the 
meantime ! 

No one can leave Miya-no-Shita with as little 
luggage as he entered it, for the village street is 
simply one long bazaar of open shops for the sale, not 
only of old armour, antiques, and photographs, but 
more especially of every kind of small wooden article, 



138 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



mostly inlaid, the manufacture of which is the indus- 
try of the districts, and which far surpass in finish, 
elegance, and ingenuity the choicest productions of 
Nice or Tunbridge Wells. They are all made from 
the different woods of the country, and at prices the 
modesty of which would shock the tradesmen of 
Switzerland. The winsome importunity and gracious 
address of those who sell them as you pass their 
booths are far more irresistible than the deafening 
advertisements and gesticulations of an Egyptian or 
Syrian bazaar. 

But we must quit the luxuries of Miya-no-Shita 
if we would see the natural wonders and beauties of 
the mountain region around. With far less trouble 
than we should have had at home in a similar 
arrangement, after reducing our impedimenta to a 
hold-all apiece, a frame of botanical paper, and a 
satchel, all which could easily be carried by one 
man, we despatched our heavier luggage by two 
kuruma men to the nearest station, to be forwarded 
to Gotemba, which we hoped to reach in a few days, 
the men giving us a receipt, on the production of 
which we received our luggage some days after 
without the slightest difficulty. 

Our first day's march was to the famous sacred 
village of Hakone, on the edge of a mountain lake, 
some eight miles distant over a mountain path, taking 
with us a man as porter and guide. However, he 
soon got so impatient at the time spent over plants 
and butterflies, which latter generally gave us the 
slip in the thick bush, that he declared he must 



THE HAKONE LAKE 



141 



have double pay if we kept him back. As we were 
not afraid now of losing our way, we let him go on. 
We were reminded that Japan has already become 
a hunting-ground of globe-trotters by meeting no 
less than three parties of Englishmen, most of 
whom were sensible enough to be pedestrians, though 
three, who ought to have remained in Pall Mall, 
were being carried down the hill in kagos, the native 
sedan chair, a mode of conveyance that we felt was 
only pardonable in the case of delicate ladies. The 
hills on either side were bare and volcanic, and the 
mass of dwarf bamboo through which our path lay 
very monotonous. But every now and then, at a 
turn in the track, a dainty little tea-house would 
arrest us, and we could no more pass one without 
expending a farthing on a cup of tea, than a toper 
could resist a public at the corner. Ashi-no-Yu was 
our halfway house, a village of bathing-houses and 
native hotels for the hot sulphur springs. The 
valley here reeked with sulphur smoke ; the atmo- 
sphere was impregnated with it. There was not a 
trace of vegetation, save the skeletons of trees, and 
the spiraeas, hydrangeas, and violets, which had 
relieved the monotony of the bamboo thickets, had 
all disappeared. We were not tempted to bathe 
after what we saw of the publicity of the ablutions. 
On the road beyond we passed a colossal Buddha in 
an apse cut out of the basalt cliff; the figure, a very 
beautiful one, is simply carved, along with the lotus- 
flower on which the prophet sits, out of the native 
rock, which has also been cut away behind it. It is 



142 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



indeed a grand work, marvellously impressive on the 
lonely, desolate mountain-side. Eows of smaller 
Buddhas lined the short avenue to the shrine, but 
there is no temple or human habitation within sight. 

There is an old tale connected with the little 
stream below, which may be worth repeating. A 
nobleman travelling by night let ten rin (equal to 
a halfpenny) drop out of his tinder-case into the 
water, and then spent fifty rin in torches to recover 
the lost piece of money. When his friends laughed 
at him for spending five times as much to recover 
what he had lost, he retorted : ' Gentlemen, you 
are very foolish, and do not understand political 
economy. You have no feeling of benevolence. If 
I had not searched for the ten-rin piece, it would 
have been for ever lost, sunk at the bottom of the 
stream. Now, the fifty rin which I have spent on 
torches will remain in circulation among the trades- 
men. It is no matter whether they, or I, or some one 
else has them, but not a single one of this sixty rin 
has been lost, and this is a clear gain to the nation.' 
We see that political economy — whether it be in 
accordance with Adam Smith or not, I do not say — 
is no new science to Japan. 

Soon after passing the image and stream we had 
our first glimpse of the mountain lake and the 
picturesque Hakone village at its head, with a fine 
cryptomeria avenue for the last mile of the way. 
The hotel proved to be a Japanese house attempting 
to ape English ways, and with English prices spoilt 
by tourists. However, we had a pleasant airy room 



THE HAK0NE LAKE 



143 



and wide balcony for the daytime, with the finest of 
mat floors, divided into three by paper walls for our 
bedrooms, the beds being made on the floor. Native 
so-called beds — that is, the soft, clean mat, and 
futon, or wadded quilt — are most welcome after a 
hard day's walk, but on native wood pillows I 
never could rest my head. To attempt it suggested 
instantaneously the thought of King Charles on the 
block, with the head ready to roll off on the other 
side. 

I fear I shall sink in the estimation of those of 
my readers for whom conchology has no charms when 
I confess that our first expedition was a stroll along 
the edge of the lake in search of freshwater shells 
among the scanty patches of reeds which occasionally 
fringe it, and amongst which we waded in black 
mud. I was stimulated to this by one of the young 
Englishmen whom we had met in the morning, who 
assured me he had found on the beach of the lake 
a freshwater shell identical with the Melania of the 
Sea of Galilee. We succeeded in collecting various 
species, amongst them the one alluded to, but found, 
as one often does, that similarity is not identity. 
"We returned in time to watch the evening sun from 
our balcony, which soon set behind Fuji. The effect 
was grand, for the sky was cloudless ; and though 
Fuji must yield the palm to the Peak of Teneriffe, I 
never there saw finer sunset colouring. We saw it 
white, rosy blush, pink, and finally, just at sunset, 
the snowclad mountain, with the sun exactly behind 
it, looked deep black in a pale golden setting. 



144 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



The Hakone lake is, so far as we can learn, of 
unknown depth. It is, in fact, an enormous moun- 
tain tarn over 5,000 feet above the sea-level. It is 
curious that, with the exception of one very small 
outlet at the north end, there are no streams from it. 
On the plain below are few or no natural streams, 
and it is said that many centuries ago the mountain 
wall was tunnelled by manual labour, and the upper 
waters tapped, and from the rocky sluices flows a 
flood sufficient to irrigate millions of acres of the 
Suruga province ; and this enables the inhabitants to 
raise the vast quantities of rice on which the country 
is dependent for its very existence. Water, and a 
sufficient supply of it to immerse the fields either at 
once or in compartments, is the first necessity of the 
rice-farmer. As rice must be sown, transplanted, and 
grown under water, immense areas of irrigated fields 
are necessary. A proof of the very early civilisation 
of Japan is found in the stupendous tunnels and 
the dams by which the mountain streams have been 
blocked for the purpose of irrigating the lower plains, 
and by which the noisy, foaming torrents have 
been changed into silent and useful, if unromantic, 
servants. These huge reservoirs are tapped when 
required, and conveyed, often for miles, along arti- 
ficial canals or ditches, each field securing a supply as 
the stream passes, by little locks ; whilst in the lower 
plains treadwheels are used to pump the water on to 
each compartment. All this is regulated by law 
most rigidly enforced. To steal a neighbour's water 
was formerly a capital offence. 




THE HAKONE LAKE, FIVE THOUSAND FEET ABOVE SEA-LEVEL. 



L 



THE HAKONE LAKE 



147 



Just on the right hand of our hotel a little 
peninsula runs out into the lake, on which is a 
modest though extensive building, one of the country 
palaces of the emperor, and which he generally 
visits for a fortnight in summer. The grounds had 
only recently been laid out, and their beauty was 
future, not present. However, unlike the Egyptian 
Khedive, the Mikado of Japan refuses to waste his 
subjects' money on imperial residences. Thus he 
declined, shortly after the beginning of the present 
war, to have a palace built for his reception at 
Hiroshima. By his refusal he intensified the enthu- 
siastic loyalty of his people. 

From our lake dwelling at Hakone, for such in the 
full sense our pile-supported chalet was, we made an 
early start to the other end of the ]ake, a row of 
about six miles, with Fuji in front the whole way. 
The scenery of the upper end of the lake was much 
bolder than at the lower, the pine forest coming down 
to the water's edge, many of the peeps recalling 
Derwentwater. Our goal was Gotemba, a little town 
from which we planned to explore Fuji and its 
neighbourhood, and we took with us a Hakone man 
with a long bamboo to carry our baggage. We 
stepped on shore from our boat, prepared for a 
twenty miles' mountain walk, with a delightful sense 
of independence. 

As we wound up the narrow path we very soon lost 
all traces of forest, and rapidly reached a succes- 
sion of rolling downs, bare and desolate but for a few 
unwholesome-looking tufts of rush. We were here 

l 2 



148 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



quite out of the usual tourists' beat, and at a tea- 
house at the top of the first bare ridge — for whatever 
else there is not, there is everywhere a tea-house — 
we prudently provisioned ourselves for the day with 
two parcels of cold boiled rice, and half a dozen hard- 
boiled eggs. After passing through some weary 
bamboo scrub we reached Ubago, a collection of hotels 
and hot sulphur water baths, and the whole air 
saturated with sulphur. The baths are long buildings 
of one storey round squares, with the steaming baths 
open in front, each tenanted by naked bathers of both 
sexes sitting promiscuously in the hot water, open to 
all passers-by. In this respect there is certainly a 
want of decency in Japan, but it is, so far as I saw, 
an exception ; for, taken on the whole, there is less 
to be seen that offends one's sense of delicacy and 
propriety in Japan than in any other Eastern country 
I have visited. 

After resting for a quarter of an hour on a mat, of 
course sipping green tea, we started up a steep path, 
through forest with an undergrowth of sweet-scented 
white dwarf daphne, which perfumed the surrounding 
atmosphere. There was also a dwarf pyrus, with 
brilliant red bloom ; quantities of an orchid, promising 
to be a gigantic cypripedium, but which does not 
flower till July, and various other to us botanic 
novelties. Crossing the next ridge, we found our- 
selves in a steep desolate valley, with ash-heap, 
sulphur hillocks, steam holes, and roaring boiling 
water tumbling under the crust upon which we trod, 
altogether a weird scene of desolation, for here there 



THE HAKONE LAKE 



151 



are no sulphur plants like those which characterise 
the similar sulphuric springs and deposits of Callirrhoe 
in the land of Moab. It is called Ojigoku, or the 
Great Hell, but was named last year, in honour of 
the emperor's visit, Owa kidani, or the valley of the 
great boiling. Both names are well-earned. It was 
a splendid opportunity for investigating volcanic 
phenomena on a small scale, but we were repeatedly 
cautioned by our guide to beware where we trod, as 
more than one traveller have lost their lives through 
the edges of the thin crust, which is cracked in every 
direction, and sometimes has wide fissures. 

We reached another crest, and lo, a complete trans- 
formation scene. In place of the sulphurous deso- 
lation and mephitic steam, we found an almost 
obliterated track, under thickets of deutzia, azalea, 
and other flowering shrubs of every colour, the azaleas 
predominating. The flora of this neighbourhood is 
in many respects very peculiar, containing many 
plants which we never found elsewhere. Another 
crest to cross, and we had to brush through bamboo 
brake, and across a flat valley for three miles, highly 
cultivated and studded with villages, till we faced a 
wooded and apparently perpendicular mountain. 

How were we to get up ? ' There,' replies our 
coolie, as he rests the pole with his burden cleverly 
balanced on his long bamboo alpenstock. ' Not 
promising/ and we looked at each other, and zigzagged 
up the side by a series of sloping notches cut in the 
cliff. However, when we at length reached the 
summit of the Otomi Toge Pass we were rewarded for 



152 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



all our scramble. Standing on the ridge we could, at 
the same moment, look over the plain we had crossed 
an hour before into the lake shining at its further 
end, and on the other side over the range, the vast 
plain through which the Tokaido runs, stretching 
unbroken to the slopes of Fuji, which stood out in 
undimmed splendour without a cloud, his snow gilded 
by the afternoon sun. Straight ahead ' were the 
snow-capped granite peaks of the provinces of Hida 
and Echu. The plain, thick with villages, coppices, 
fields, avenues, and trees of all sorts, looked more like 
Kent or Surrey than Japan as I had yet seen it. And 
this impression of its English character was soon in ten 
sified when, gaily tripping down the mountain side, 
my daughter said she had never before trod on turf all 
the years she had been in Japan. We were delighted 
with the tall, pale, purple daisy — at least it seemed 
to me a true Bellis, but, if not, was certainly an aster 
very like it, met with by us here for the first time, 
and which covers the whole meadow-like slopes. 

This was the first district I had found where sheep 
might be reared, for there is no dwarf bamboo, as 
there is everywhere else, a plant which is fatal to 
pasturing sheep, and which is a simple explanation of 
their absence in the couDtry. At the little tea-house 
on the top where we were glad to rest, we met 
several fellow-countrymen who had come in the other 
direction with kagos or chairs, and who did not 
exchange salutations with mere pedestrians. I took 
the opportunity of skinning a curious little black 
shrew mouse with a bushy tail which I had obtained 



THE HAKONE LAKE 



153 



in the bamboo brake. When we had reached the 
bottom of the range, we were rather disappointed to 
find that we had still more than four miles to walk ; 
yet who could be tired as we trod those narrow 
Devonshire lanes, ceaselessly using our butterfly-net 
under the long hedges of camellia, the falling crimson 
blooms of which absolutely smothered the smooth 
path which they overhung ? In fact, here the 
camellia took the place of the hawthorn, and the 
azaleas of the apple trees of Southern England. At 
length we came upon Gotemba, which is one long 
street, along which we trudged for more than a mile 
before we found quarters at a thoroughly native inn, 
exquisitely clean as usual, but without a solitary 
chair or table. We inquired their charges, and after 
a little bargaining closed for a yen and a half, or 
five shillings, a day for the two of us, including three 
native meals, as well as apartments and attendance. 
On asking for a hot bath, I was ushered to one in the 
large kitchen, in which a man was already stewing, 
and created much surprise by my fastidiousness in 
declining to share the bath with him, though I was 
assured there was room for two in it ! 

Eleven hours on foot made us thoroughly appreciate 
our couches, though they were only the mat-flooring, 
with futons under and over us, and others rolled 
up for a pillow. We slept well in spite of the 
noises, for the hotel was extensive, and there was 
only a sliding paper wall between the rooms, while 
visitors seemed to be coming and going throughout 
the night. I was aroused during my first sleep by 



154 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



the visit of a policeman, who, having heard that 
foreigners had arrived, hurriedly came to examine 
our passport, and insisted upon seeing my daughter, 
from whom he wanted explanations as to how or why 
we had such an unusually extensive one. When his 
curiosity and scruples were satisfied, he was of course 
effusive in his politeness. His visit reminded me of 
two things which I have often observed in Japan — 
their absolute indifference to times and seasons, and 
the amusing self-importance of the little officials, far 
superior to Bumbledom at home. If a message has 
to be delivered, whether unimportant or not, the 
time of day matters not. If the mail has arrived and 
the postman is up, he will rouse you to deliver letters 
at 2 a.m., especially if one of them is registered and 
must be receipted with ink, and you happen to have 
no ink in your bedroom. In red tape they surpass 
France and equal Eussia. A friend of mine was 
travelling with a passport which authorised him to 
visit certain places in a particular order. He wished 
to vary this order, which had been filled in without 
his being consulted, but was informed in a certain 
town that he must go west rather than east, as he 
wished. Expostulation was in vain, but after waiting 
a few days, when the .officials saw he was an awkward 
customer who intended to hold firm, they informed 
him, that though it was their duty to compel him to 
leave the city by the west road, yet after pursuing 
it for a mile or two he would find a cross-country 
path which would take him in the other direction. 
As an instance of the Japanese love of keeping to 



THE HAKONE LAKE 



155 



the letter of the law, the following may be quoted. 
A certain bridge was found unsafe for heavy 
traffic, though still available as a foot-bridge, and a 
notice was accordingly posted, ' No animals allowed 
to cross this bridge.' After a time a formal com- 
plaint was made that it was impossible to insist on 
this order being obeyed, for rats would still continue 
to cross. A solemn conclave was held, at which it 
was decided that it was impossible to prevent the 
rats having their free course, and yet that dis- 
obedience to an official edict was not to be tolerated, 
and therefore the wording of the notice was altered 
to run, 'No large animal allowed to cross this bridge.' 
Even then the malcontents were not quite satisfied, 
for where was the line to be drawn between large and 
small animals ? 

At Gotemba, as at all Japanese inns, the bill of 
fare varies not for breakfast, dinner, and supper. 
We had fish soup in a little lacquer basin, the float- 
ing bits of fish having to be caught with chopsticks — 
to a raw hand like myself quite as serious an affair 
as the original capture in the stream. Perhaps 
another kind of soup, made with seaweed, vege- 
tables, or dried fish, might come instead. There 
were green pickles in a lacquer saucer ; raw eggs, 
probably having been kept long enough to have a 
flavour, a fresh egg being considered very insipid. 
When near the coast we should have had varieties 
of shell-fish, sea-urchins, and half-cooked octopus, or 
sea-fish. But here these were represented by delicious 
mountain trout, nicely baked. To such condiments 



156 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



at a wedding-feast or at the new year would be added 
a lobster, emblematic of long life, with the wish, 
' May you live to such an age that your back is as 
bent as a lobster's ! ' All these are served to each 
person on a small square lacquer tray, with feet a 
few inches high. In front of us was always placed a 
small wooden tub with a lid, filled with steaming rice, 
and served with a flat wooden ladle, not unlike a 
painter's spatula, with which each from time to time 
refilled at pleasure the little rice bowl. As all the 
dishes are served on the little trays at once, the chief 
duty of the waitress is to keep the rice-bowl supplied; 
in fact, rice is the substitute not only for bread, but 
practically for all our food save meat and vegetables. 

There are no sweets at the regular meals, but green 
tea always follows, and, if specially ordered, sake, 
served hot in a long-necked porcelain flask. This 
sake is prepared from rice malt with very little hops, 
and resembles much the heavy muddy beer of an in- 
ferior country public-house. Cold, it is certainly not 
palatable, and when hot only tolerable to my taste. 

More difficult than the management of chopsticks, 
at which I soon became a tolerable adept, was the 
sitting on the floor to eat, and I never during my 
sojourn succeeded in — I will not say gracefully, but 
even in any way with ease or comfort — accommo- 
dating myself to the native habits in this respect, 
and soon began to feel that a room furnished with 
but one chair and table was a luxurious one. If I 
rolled up a futon and sat on it my tray was far 
below me, and either a more supple back or chop- 




PILGRIM GOING UP FUJILAMA. 



THE HAK0NE LAKE 



159 



sticks of abnormal length were needed ; or if I 
reversed the order of things and mounted my dinner 
tray on this temporary seat, what was I to do on the 
floor with my aching legs, that refused to be tucked 
under me, as those of my little Japanese friends have 
learned to be from babyhood ? 

Though the ascent of Fuji at this early season 
of the year was impossible, we determined to reach 
the forest which covers its lower slopes and penetrate 
as far as the snow would permit us. We made an 
early start for the foot of the mountain in jinrikshas, 
or, as they are more properly in Japan called, kuru- 
mas, zigzagging for several miles through narrow 
lanes with camellia hedges laden with bloom. At 
length we emerged from this Kentish scenery into 
paddy fields, crossing countless little brooks, fed by 
the mountain snow, hardly deep enough to be called 
dells, but the sides of which were clad with over- 
hanging azaleas, red, white, yellow, purple, and pink, 
and many other choice shrubs, while the black water 
ousel, the representative of the familiar dipper of our 
northern streams, darted up and down the brook, or 
briskly jerked his tail as he lighted on a stone in the 
water. The farmers were busy preparing the fields 
for planting out the rice. Rice-growing is toil indeed, 
and has passed into a Japanese proverb for hard or 
weary labour. Men were wading knee-deep in the 
black mud, leading horses or oxen attached to a 
long rake, which does duty for a plough, and pounds 
the soaked clods until the whole becomes reduced to 
the consistency of pea soup, and is then ready for the 



160 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



young plants. Ascending from the rice fields, the 
road and soil were alike formed of black volcanic ash 
like a Durham pit-heap. 

Arrived at Subashiri, the last village before the 
ascent, we found the place en fete, and had the 
opportunity of seeing at our leisure the humours of 
a Japanese country fair. 

The village is a long one, over half a mile, and 
at the upper end terminates in a Shinto temple, 
embowered in dense cryptomeria grove and avenue. 
The main street is wide, and planted with flowering 
trees on both sides. Between these, bamboo tops 
with their feathery foliage had been set all along, 
fastened with long lines of twine, and covered like 
a Christmas-tree with bits of red and white paper. 
All the women and children were in their bright 
holiday dresses ; the streets were lined with the 
stalls of vendors of all kinds of goods, from large 
mats to dolls' clothes. Cheapjacks were advertising 
their wares ; some strolling players had a platform 
mounted on rollers, and were performing free gratis ; 
on a more elevated stage pretty dancing girls were 
performing a Japanese opera and ballet combined ; 
crowds of country folk, with bales of rice straw and 
mats, as well as all kinds of farm produce to sell, 
combined business with pleasure. There were penny 
peeps for one rin (one-tenth of a halfpenny) ; a grand 
model of Fuji on a barrow ; Punch whacking Judy 
exactly as he does elsewhere, and Toby by his side. 
There were more horses assembled than I had yet 
seen in Japan. It was indeed the village feast of 



THE HAKONE LAKE 



161 



the olden time, with all the quaint Japanese sur- 
roundings. Paper lanterns lined the avenue to the 
temple preparatory for a great illumination at night. 
Here we found a grand service proceeding. The 
Shinto priests vest and revest in public, and con- 
tinually change their coloured stoles. There was an 
empty shrine, with the two long strips of cut white 
paper hanging in front. The ritual was very moderate, 
but we were unable to understand the chantings and 
recitations of which the service, performed by the 
priests alone, consisted. 

At lunch in the village inn fresh mountain trout 
and egg soup were welcome delicacies, and in con- 
sideration for our foreign weakness our hostess found 
two chairs, which were indeed appreciated. From 
the village in the afternoon we wandered on over 
volcanic ashes through a thin wood, and then for 
two hours mounted through the forest. I got near 
the edge of the snow-line, or at least to the snow 
lying under the pine trees as yet untouched by the 
spring sun, and in a small open space in the 
middle of the forest, filled with flowering shrubs and 
entirely secluded, had a splendid opportunity for 
watching some of the rarest birds of Japan and 
noting their habits. It seemed to be the rendezvous 
of song-birds, as I sat completely concealed by 
the foliage of an evergreen shrub. The beautiful 
narcissus flycatcher took its perch on a twig within 
a yard of my head ; the Siberian blue-tail, and, best 
of all, the lovely Japanese waxwing, fearlessly hopped 
about in pursuit of the small butterflies ; the Siberian 

M 



162 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



blackbird with its white belly, and the black and 
white ousel (Merula cordis) perched at the opposite 
end of the opening, entered as competitors in a 
singing match, while many a warbler whistled and 
titmouse chirped unseen. It was an hour's ornitho- 
logical education such as I have rarely had, and 
though I was not able to pay my respects to the 
Lady of Fuji in her crater at the summit, as every 
pilgrim ought, I was amply rewarded by the fruits 
of my pilgrimage. 

It is interesting to note that as we have retained 
the ancient British names of our rivers and of many of 
our hills, so the name of Fuji has no meaning in the 
vernacular, but is kindred to the Ainu word for fire 
mountain, handed down from the time when the 
aboriginal Ainu inhabited the land. It is held to be 
the residence of a goddess, Fuji-sen-gen, and is, 
therefore, a sacred mountain and place of pilgrimage. 
The legend says that Fuji arose in a night, and that 
at the same time Lake Biwa was hollowed out, and 
tradition adds that this was about the year 330 B.c. 
There are historic records of eruptions from 799 a.d., 
and the last of any importance was in 1707 a.d., 
when the hump on the south side of the mountain 
was formed. In this eruption Tokio itself was covered 
with six inches of ashes. At present the only sign 
of activity is a little steam and smoke from cracks 
close to the crater on the side facing Subashiri. We 
only ascended about 4000 feet, but the forest and 
thicket extend 3000 feet higher. 

As an illustration of the quickness and imitative 



THE HAKONE LAKE 



163 



powers of the people, I may mention an incident of 
this day's ramble. I had been followed to the forest 
by two men, who always kept me in view. It seems 
that one of them had learned from our kuruma men 
that we had been butterfly-hunting. They had 
followed our example, but were too shy to accost 
us, though they told our men. When invited, they 
summoned courage at last to come to me, and offered 
me about a dozen butterflies which they had caught, 
and folded in triangular bits of paper, exactly as I 
had done. They gracefully offered me the fruits of 
their chase, and when I accepted and thanked them, 
giving them a two-sen piece, they beamed with 
delight, and we each bowed to the ground. The 
men evidently enjoyed the pleasure of gratifying a 
stranger. 

Another instance of graceful courtesy. At a 
little farmhouse, as we were returning in the 
evening, the blaze of azaleas and the neatness of a 
garden arrested us for a moment. As we stopped to 
admire, an old woman came out and insisted on filling 
my daughter's arms with gorgeous branches of bloom. 
She reciprocated by handing a picture-card and a 
tract, and we discovered that the woman was a 
Christian, and cousin of one of our kuruma men. 



M 2 



164 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



CHAPTER V 

NAGOYA 

The next day we took the train from Gotemba to 
Nagoya, 176 miles further on, and the fourth city of 
Japan in population, 350,000, a principal seat of the 
porcelain manufacture. Here the Canadian branch 
of our Church has a mission, supported by Wy^lif 
College, Toronto. The journey was accomplished in 
eight hours, through a rich, fertile plain, the most 
extensive in the country, thickly peopled and well- 
wooded. Part of our route lay close to the sea, and 
we crossed the mouths of two rivers, wide and shallow, 
by trestle bridges, each nearly a mile long. We had 
among our fellow-passengers Bishop Bickersteth, who 
was going on beyond us. We had also in our carriage 
a native lady of very winning and refined appearance, 
who soon introduced herself to my daughter as a 
Christian from Osaka. Three officers also entered 
the carriage, one of whom, a very gentlemanly man, 
the head of the police at Nagoya, spoke English, and 
told me he knew our missionaries there. He told me 
he felt very much complimented by finding that I 
smoked the light tobacco of the country, which, he 
said, most foreigners despised. At a roadside station 
luncheon boxes were purchased. For ten sen, that 
is fivepence, I had handed to me a beautifully-made 



NAGOYA 



165 



oblong chip box with a lid, full of rice ; a pair of new 
wooden chop-sticks, still joined at one end, to show 
they had never been used, in a pretty paper envelope ; 
and another similar box, done up in picturesque paper, 
containing nine different articles of food, arranged 
like a bouquet, with strips of green bamboo leaf, cut 
with scissors, to separate them. It was a perfect gem 
of Japanese art and neatness. Among the items were 
a very small boiled cuttle-fish, which was very good, 
white beans cooked with sugar, boiled seaweed, pickle, 
a mushroom, a tiny rice-flour pudding, a rice-flour 
sponge cake, a lump of Turkish delight, and two 
vegetables, to me unknown. It is needless to say 
that the dishes were microscopical, and were not very 
much larger than the dolls' feasts to which grand- 
children invite me. We had a kuruma ride of two 
miles through the vast city from the station of 
Nagoya to the hospitable roof of our Canadian friends, 
the Kev. J. C. and Mrs. Robinson. 

Nagoya is full of interest, ancient and modern, 
historical and artistic. The central feature, which 
catches the eye from every part of the city, is the 
castle, probably the finest specimen of an old Daimio's 
residence in the country, and as now it is government 
property, it is one of the few that has been carefully 
preserved. It is the Alnwick Castle of Japan, and 
was held by the first peer of the realm next to the 
Shogun. The founder of the house was the son 01 
Iyeyasu. The castle was built in 1610 ; the outer 
enceinte is very extensive, and is occupied by the 
garrison, but the central citadel and donjon -keep 



166 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



are indeed a marvellous wooden pile, and a grand 
specimen of barbaric splendour. 

A moat, still full of water, surrounds the outer 
wall, formed of mighty cyclopean masonry, all the 
walls sloping and slightly curving outwards. Then 
there is a wide open space with gardens, orchards, 
and fields, and here are the extensive barracks and 
parade ground, where formerly were the quarters of 
the prince's Samurai and the offices of the province. 
Within this is an inner moat, now dry, and inhabited 
by a small herd of deer, and above it rises another 
cyclopean wall, surmounted by wooden battlements. 

The centre keep, a massive structure of five stories 
supported by stone walls, but within entirely wooden, 
is surrounded by a bewildering number of apartments, 
of one or two stories, of which, alas ! the furniture 
has all disappeared, though the exquisitely carved 
and gilded ceilings and the partitioned panels of each 
chamber are decorated with very fine paintings, as 
are the alcoves and the wooden doors between the 
different sets of apartments. Each room is generally 
devoted to a distinct subject painted in panels. Thus 
we have the history of the tiger in one room, in 
another of the leopard, in another pheasants, of which 
five different species are admirably depicted ; deer, 
hawks, squirrels, woodpeckers, etc., etc., have all 
their separate apartments. Others are devoted to 
ancient Japanese life, civil and military. In one, all 
their games are beautifully painted in a series of 
twelve ; in another a painting of horse-racing occupies 
a whole side, and among the spectators stand two 




NAGOYA OASTLB 



NAGOYA 



169 



unmistakable Dutchmen. In another a tournament 
is depicted, where a Japanese lady is evidently the 
queen of beauty. Another, the richest apartment of 
the whole — the one kept for the use of the Shogun 
when he should visit the prince — is decorated with 
fancy Chinese scenery, while in the alcove are power- 
ful carvings of cranes, tortoises and cocks, the latter 
perched on a drum. In one of the bird panels in 
another room is a hole cut out exactly the shape of a 
swallow, the myth being that the painter made so 
perfect a swallow that it flew away in the night and 
left its place vacant ! 

At the bottom of the keep is a very deep and 
inexhaustible well. It is difficult to describe the 
massive piles of wood employed in this huge struc- 
ture. The boards of the corridors are so arranged 
that it is impossible to walk on them without their 
creaking, and so warning is given of any one's 
approach. Each storey is roofed with sheets of 
copper, and it is said the fortress could accommodate 
25,000 defenders. From the top of it we had a 
magnificent view of the vast plain, using our glasses 
to some purpose. 

The angles of the roof of the summit are orna- 
mented by two golden dolphins gleaming in the 
sunlight, and catching the eye from every part of the 
city. One of these was sent to the Vienna Exhibition 
in 1873, and was wrecked on its way back, but with 
great difficulty recovered from the sea, and restored 
to its height, whence it is never to descend again. 
But there is a tale of a thief who took advantage of 



L70 



EAMBLES IN JAPAN 



a stormy night to fly a kite over one of them, and 
thus attempted to get the gold plating, but was 
caught and boiled in oil for his pains, after which the 
flying of large kifces was prohibited in the province. 
The dolphins are eight feet and a half in height, and 
are said to be worth £40,000. 

The historic castle is not the only attraction of 
Nagoya, which well deserves more time than the 
three days we were able to bestow upon it. A bright 
avenue of blossoming cherry trees leads up to the 
Buddhist temple called Higashi Hongwanji, which is 
remarkable not only for its external beauty and its 
internal splendour, but as being one of the very few 
fine religious buildings erected in the present century, 
and which rivals if it does not surpass the structures 
of ancient art. It is the cathedral of the Hongwanji 
sect, or reformed Buddhists, a sect not more than 300 
years old, who desire to restore their religion to what 
they believe was its primitive purity. Their leading 
tenet, which distinguishes them from the numerous 
other subdivisions of Buddhism in Japan, is the 
doctrine of justification by faith, that is, they teach 
that if your good works and penances are not of them- 
selves sufficient to insure your rapid attainment of 
Nirvana, or absorption into the infinite, the desired 
end may be attained by faith in the Amida incarnation 
of Buddha. As this sect embraces the most thoughtful 
and intellectual part of the population, the pro- 
minence that it gives to the doctrine of justification 
by faith removes one great obstacle to the reception 
of Christianity, if it even does not pave the way for it. 



NAGOYA 



171 



A careful survey of this temple affords sufficient 
evidence that neither art nor taste have degenerated 
in the country ; though there are no signs of any 
development or originality. But can we say more, 
or as much, of architectural art in our own country ? 
Where is the trace of originality in any one of our 
modern architects ? Have our Gilbert Scotts or 
Butterfields done any more than simply reproduce 
the older designs ; or are their most original works 
anything more than the taking to pieces, after the 
manner of a Chinese puzzle, the masterpieces of our 
old designers, and reproducing them in a somewhat 
varied arrangement? This temple, which is 120 feet 
long, is divided into a nave and two aisles, with a 
deep chancel and a central gilt shrine, with an image 
of Buddha on a platform, enriched with exquisitely 
designed carvings and sculpture in wood, painted and 
gilded. The shrine at the termination of one of the 
aisles contains a portrait of the founder of the sect. 
On both sides of the central image are several gilt 
screens, on which are very cleverly painted landscapes. 
But what struck me most in this temple was the 
number and wonderful variety of fabulous and super- 
natural beings — in fact, a repertory of all that is 
mythological and legendary in the fairy tales of old 
Japan. The heroes of romance or of fairy tales are 
represented riding on fish, tortoises, cranes, frogs, and 
dragons. All the figures I believe can be explained 
by references to the old Japanese mythology, of which 
on these points at least I must confess my ignorance. 

One other small temple is well worth a visit 



172 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



for the extraordinary collection of images which 
it contains. On both sides of and behind the shrine 
are galleries, where are arranged on stages one above 
another small statues of the five hundred original 
disciples of Buddha. Each one of the five hundred is 
different, both in face and costume. No two can be 
found alike. The work is said to be about three 
hundred years old. What strikes the visitor most is 
that there is nothing conventional about them, nothing 
of the inanimate uniformity of the Buddhas, but all 
are full of expression. The artists must have indeed 
been geniuses to devise the different faces, all of 
which they could not have had before them. In fact, 
they seem quite to have understood the characteristic 
types of the various peoples of the East. Some are 
admirable Hindu types, others Mongolian, Chinese, 
and Malay, besides the ordinary Japanese. There is 
every variety too of individual expression. Some are 
grave and dignified, others haughty and imperious, 
some smiling, others with an amusing Pharisaic 
expression of self-satisfaction. Their attitudes are 
as various as their countenances, standing, kneeling, 
recumbent, praying, blessing, or riding on horses, 
elephants, etc. The verger assured us that every one 
who searches can find his own likeness among these 
Eakan. 

We had intended to leave Nagoya earlier than 
we did, but we missed our train owing to it 
starting by the station clock, which was fast. On 
our remonstrating with the officials they were most 
profuse in apologies, and would be delighted to put 



NAGOYA 



175 



the clock to any time we wished. They at once put 
it back ten minutes to oblige us, but this did not 
recall our train. However, we were able well to 
utilise the extra time. We gave a day to visiting 
the porcelain manufactories of Nagoya, under the 
guidance of a highly educated, intelligent Japanese 
Christian gentleman. Nagoya is a great manufac- 
turing centre for every kind of porcelain, not only for 
that which bears its name, but also for the modern 
Satsuma and cloisonne wares. We saw the whole 
processes, from the mixing of the clay, the modelling, 
painting, and baking, to the final glazing. Much of 
it was very like the operations which I have seen in 
Worcester, though much less depended on machinery, 
and more on the accuracy of the individual hand and 
eye. This was especially the case with the painting. 
All Nagoya ware is hand-painted, and we watched 
for a long time an old man sitting on the ground, 
with an unbaked vase between his legs, which he was 
covering with artistic designs with great rapidity, 
and no copy before him. He rapidly finished his 
work, and having passed it on, took another vase, 
which he would decorate quite in another style, 
again without a copy. Having passed this on, he 
would take its fellow and reproduce exactly the same 
pattern without once referring to the other, simply 
from memory. It seemed to make no difference 
whether the subject were landscape, a garden scene, 
birds, or human figures, all were performed with 
equal accuracy and rapidity. This skill is acquired 
by long training and practice. These decorators of 



176 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



the ceramic art, like the other artists of their country, 
never copy Nature, but study the recognised master- 
pieces of the artists of the olden time, whose works 
they reproduce over and over again with Chinese 
accuracy, even to the minutest touches, never ventur- 
ing beyond the original. 

And so in landscape art. No Japanese will 
attempt, for instance, to sketch Fuji from Nature, 
still less to attempt a subject not selected by the old 
masters. There are, perhaps, about fifty such scenes, 
which have the same place in art as the Madonnas of 
Eaphael and Murillo in Europe, and these are well 
known to every educated Japanese, who would think 
it a profanation to attempt a sketch of a scene not 
included in the classical selection. We followed the 
vases from the artist to the kiln, the delicate mani- 
pulation of which showed how much depends upon a 
practised eye and touch ; and then finally to the 
glazing oven. We had the satisfaction of including 
among our subsequent purchases a pair of vases 
of which we had watched the whole process of 
manufacture. 

Another department of this large factory was 
devoted to the manufacture of modern Satsuma 
ware, the distinctive characteristic of which seems 
to be a peculiar minute reticulated cracking beneath 
the glaze. The art of this manufacture has only 
lately been resuscitated, in consequence of the 
immense prices obtained for the old extinct Satsuma 
ware. So far as I could detect the process, this 
peculiar effect is produced in the baking, perhaps 



NAG0YA 



177 



by its being taken out and immersed in some liquid 
or exposed to a sudden change of temperature before 
the process is completed. Probably we were not 
shown everything, as it is not likely that what must 
be almost if not altogether a secret should be 
revealed to strangers. 

But we did watch with much interest the cloisonne 
manufacture, which is again an example of the 
marvellous memory and imitative power of Japanese 
artistic workmen. The vase to be operated upon 
was slightly dried rather than baked before it came 
into the artist's hands. He was supplied with long 
rolls of metal slips or flattened wire about the width 
of a watch-spring, say the eighth of an inch, which 
looked like nickel, but which were, I believe, copper. 
In fact, had it not been for their colour, I should 
have taken them for watch springs. These, with 
marvellous delicacy, the workman twisted into the 
desired shape, and pressed lightly into the soft clay, 
snipping them when required with a pair of pliers, 
and forming the outline of leaves or birds, or what- 
ever else he desired to represent. 

When his pattern was thus completed, he filled 
the various interstices of this network from a palette 
by his side, on which were arranged little piles of 
paste of various colours. There might be from a 
dozen to twenty pastes of different shades employed 
for a single vase. 

o 

The patterns of some of the borders were ex- 
tremely small, some of the loops being but the 
fortieth part of an inch across. For these he twisted 

N 



178 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



his wire with minute pliers. This part of the work 
was really almost microscopic, and yet done with 
the accuracy of a machine. "When these tiny par- 
titions had received a portion of the metallic paste, 
the ware was taken to the kiln, slightly baked and 
then refilled. This process is repeated several times, 
when the article is smoothed down and polished by 
another artist. A most costly kind of cloisonne 
ware is formed on copper instead of porcelain. This 
manufacture, however, did not come under our 
notice. 

Having completed the pattern according to his 
taste, he then roughed the field not occupied by his 
design with a wooden instrument, when the vase 
was ready for the first kiln and then for the polisher. 
After spending half a day in inspecting the manu- 
facture, we visited the show-room, which would have 
done credit to Regent Street, and five boxes told 
the tale of the spoil that had become ours. We 
had no further trouble with our purchases, which 
were sent on by the vender to Osaka, and thence 
to England, where they arrived without a single 
fracture. The packing of china is an art in Japan. 
Every article is packed separately in rice straw 
twisted tightly round the article, and the ends 
ingeniously tucked in, so that each piece of porcelain 
looks like a hard straw ball, and can be let fall 
without fracture. 

We afterwards visited in the company of our 
Japanese friend, who was a well-known connoisseur 
in art, a great sale of furniture, lacquer and bronze, 



NAGOYA 



179 



the property of the son of a celebrated Daimio, who 
had been ruining himself on the turf at Paris, and 
was compelled to raise money by the sale of the 
family heirlooms. These were displayed in the 
upper storey of the principal hotel in the place. 
All the partitions having been removed, the whole 
formed one spacious gallery, along the sides and 
down the centre of which the various articles were 
arranged, each having a strip of tissue paper attached 
to it with the price distinctly marked in Japanese 
characters. Thus there was no bargaining, no abate- 
ment, no competition. The visitor simply told the 
salesman the number of the article he wished for, 
and it was handed to him. There were many 
ancestral relics of great intrinsic value, very fine 
bronzes at a figure quite beyond my limits ; but 
guided by our Japanese friend we spent a few pounds 
in antique lacquer ware inlaid with mother of pearl, 
which we found afterwards was considered a great 
bargain. Amongst others a tray of ancient Corean 
lacquer, the manufacture of which is quite different 
from the Japanese, and is now a lost art. 

On Sunday morning we had a walk of two miles to 
the house used as a church, which is simply an ordinary 
house in a busy street. Passing through the outer 
apartment, all took off their shoes. The next room 
was the vestry, and beyond it the church, consisting 
of three rooms thrown into one, with the communion 
table at the further end, where the paper walls had 
been removed, so that the church opened on the 
pretty little garden behind. The congregation con- 

N 2 



180 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



sis ted of rather less than thirty adults, and a Sunday- 
school of about a dozen children. Chairs were found 
for Mrs. Eobinson and myself, but everyone else sat 
on the floor, while the bishop in full robes officiated 
in stocking feet. We began with, the Confirmation 
Service. Six converts were confirmed, one of them a 
leading lawyer, another a man of education, who was 
to be a catechist. The bishop gave the address 
before the service, and Holy Communion followed, of 
course all in Japanese, which, though I could not 
understand, yet was able to follow, an advantage of 
a liturgy that 1 have often felt in foreign lands. 
It was an intensely interesting spectacle, and recalled 
in imagination the infant churches in the Acts of the 
Apostles. The occasion when St. Paul received into 
the church Dionysius the Areopagite and the lady 
Damaris could not have been very different in its 
surroundings. There were various other services and 
schools in the afternoon and evening, for neither the 
bishop nor any other of the missionaries spare them- 
selves, but I remained at home. 

We left Nagoya and its 125,000 inhabitants 
reluctantly. We could well have spent more time 
there with our charming hosts, who are specimens of 
earnest missionaries, and an honour to the Canadian 
Church. 

Our next stage was Gifu, a town of 40,000 in- 
habitants, the capital of the province of Mino, and 
the employment of whose people is the manufacture 
cf paper lanterns ; the rearing of silkworms ; and in 
summer the fishing with cormorants, which is really 



NAGOYA 



181 



the important industry of the place, and which 
attracts many spectators. 

This art, like falconry, is of great antiquity, and 
like it, has been derived from China. Old Willoughby, 
more than two hundred years ago, described this mode 
of fishing with cormorants as it had been carried on in 
old England long before his time, and refers to several 
authorities, as J. Faber and Mendoza. In England, 
however, it had become extinct, until recently it 
was resuscitated by that well-known falconer 
Captain F. Salvin. It would seem that the sport 
was introduced into Europe in the beginning of the 
17th century by the Dutch, from whose country it 
spread to France and England, and was a favourite 
amusement of both J ames I. and Charles I. Probably 
it was from Japan rather than China that the 
earlier voyagers derived their knowledge of this mode 
of fishing. Cormorant fishing, as I have seen it 
carried on on a large scale in the Chinese province of 
Che-Kiang in no way differs from the Japanese 
method. The cormorants, which are taken very 
young, are taught to feed from the hand, and then 
allowed to fish for themselves with a long string 
attached to their foot. But being very docile and 
tame, they soon learn to return to call. When they 
have proved themselves sufficiently trustworthy, they 
are allowed to fish loose, with a leather strap round 
the neck, so that they cannot swallow the prey they 
have captured. When called, they return and disgorge 
it, and when they have thus secured as large a supply 
as their master wants, the strap is removed, and they 



182 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



are allowed to fish for themselves. The birds, when 
allowed a short rest at intervals, will continue their 
labours through the whole night, the fish being 
attracted to the boat, raft, or it may be plank fixed 
to the shore, by a torch kept burning. 

Our hosts at Gifu were Mr. and Mrs. Chappell, 
of the Church Missionary Society, the station 
having been only taken up by the society about a. 
year previously. Its origin is interesting. Mr. 
Chappell's brother was English teacher in the 
Government High School here, and being an earnest 
Christian man, devoted what time he could to 
drawing towards the Gospel those whom he could 
reach. The governor refused to allow him to hold 
services or to preach, but at length gave him per- 
mission, on condition of his promising not to speak 
against Buddha. This was a great step forward, 
considering that Mr. Chappell was a servant of the 
government. He then persuaded his brother, who 
was a curate in England, to come out and take his 
place, and he for some time supported the infant 
mission, and after an interval the Church Missionary 
Society adopted it. The result of two and a half years' 
work in a city where there was not a single baptized 
Christian to begin with, is that now there are seven 
out-stations, at three of which there are mission- 
rooms, in the others meetings in houses. There are 
two catechists continually at work, one at Gifu, the 
other in the villages. We met them both, and very 
earnest, capable men they appeared to be. In Gifu 
there were sixty-five Church members, besides eight 



NAGOYA 



183 



baptized converts scattered in the out-stations, A 
good-sized Hired house in a lovely garden served for 
a church, and as the garden gates stand open and 
the whole front of the church is also open, the people 
can stroll in here, and see as they like, without 
disturbing the services or committing themselves. 
The church was all matted, and much larger than 
that at Nagoya, but — which is quite an innovation 
for a strictly native community — had benches. There 
was a neat communion table, desks, and font. I had 
not yet met with a more promising infant church 
than this, but the people are characteristically inde- 
pendent, and Mr. Chappell knows what a parochial 
council means. A notice tablet by the gate gave 
a goodly list of the services and meetings throughout 
the week. 

Gifu is dominated by a fine bold ridge of 
thickly-wooded hills, which we attempted to climb, 
but after a long scramble in the woods had to 
abandon the attempt, though we were rewarded by a 
grand view over the wide Ohari plain. We returned 
through a pretty public park, with band-stand and 
all the most modern appliances. After purchasing, 
as in duty bound, a due supply of paper and bamboo 
lanterns and fans, in most of which the cormorant 
fishing figures, we found a number of the Christians 
had assembled to meet us. I gave them an address, 
which was interpreted by one of the catechists, who 
understood English very fairly. 

At Gifu we found ourselves off the Tokaido and on 
the Nakasendo, the other great road between Tokio 



184 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



and Kioto, leading mainly through the mountains, as 
its name implies, the Tokaido following the plain as 
far as possible. The road was constructed more than 
a thousand years ago. Tradition carries its origin 
much further back, and says that in the reign of the 
Emperor Kaiko, a.d. 71, his son made use of this 
road for the conquest of the eastern parts of Japan, 
[ can hardly leave Gifu without mentioning that a 
very few months after our visit this fair country, 
with the lovely plain on which we had been gazing, 
and the vast city of Nagoya, were desolated, and 
Gifu itself destroyed by the earthquake, one of the 
most disastrous on record, and of the effects of which 
the illustrations may give some idea. 

A long railway journey took us from Gifu to 
Hikone Station ; but let not the weary traveller who 
is set down at the station imagine that he has 
arrived at the place, for in Japan, as elsewhere, 
stations are sometimes far from the spot whose name 
they bear. We found ourselves deposited at a 
roadside station late at night, with no means of 
conveyance for ourselves or our baggage to the town, 
until through the good offices of the kindly folk at 
the station kurumas were sent for, which landed us 
towards midnight at a little inn on the shores of 
Lake Biwa, where, having knocked up the people, we 
had tea, and slept soundly on the matted floor. 
Notwithstanding the shortness of our night, we 
pushed aside our paper screens soon after sunrise, 
and looked out on the fairy -like scene over the water. 
The house reminded us of the one at Hakone, pro- 



NAGOYA 



187 



jecting over tlie lake, close to the little wooden pier, 
which already presented a busy scene, as bales of 
rice and fish were carried down ready for the steamer 
which runs the length of the lake twice a day, Hikone 
being a third of the way down on the western side. 
Biwa-is larger than the Lake of Geneva, over thirty- 
six miles long, and surrounded by mountains on all 
sides, on one only of which did we notice the patches 
of snow remaining. There are several wooded islets 
scattered over it. The name is derived from a 
fancied resemblance to the shape of the guitar. The 
natives are very proud of this lake, which in their 
estimation ranks only second to Mount Fuji as one of 
the glories of Japan, and they are fond of boasting 
that it is larger than any lake in Europe. The 
tradition is that the lake was created by an earth- 
quake in the year B.C. 286, at the same time that 
Fuji rose from the plains of Suruga. In Japanese 
poetry this lake is a favourite theme, and the ' eight 
beauties of Omi ' (i.e. Biwa) are frequently alluded 
to, these beauties being the autumn moon as seen 
from one place, the evening sun from another, and 
so on. However fanciful these may be, no one who 
has seen it will deny that the lake presents many 
]ovely landscapes, though none possess the grand or 
the sublime. 

Hikone possesses a half-destroyed feudal castle, 
the seat of one of the Daimios, which would have 
been entirely demolished had not the Mikado, 
happening to pass through Hikone, and finding the 
inhabitants exhibiting, as they thought, their loyalty, 



188 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



by pulling down the noble old building, promptly 
stopped this act of vandalism. Unfortunately, at 
the time of the inauguration of the new era and the 
abolition of feudalism, loyalty was exhibited by the 
destruction of the old castles throughout the country, 
much as zeal for the Reformation was demonstrated 
by the destruction of abbeys. 

As the steamer started from the north end of 
the lake, two or three hours before it reached Hikone, 
we had an opportunity for a stroll on the beach ; and 
amongst the reeds and rushes I collected many 
splendid specimens of fresh-water shells, of species 
peculiar, I believe, to this district. Though generally 
the Japanese thoroughly appreciate a collector's taste, 
especially in botany, the villagers were exceedingly 
amused and perplexed by the interest we took in 
shells, and especially in those whose inmates were too 
small to eat, and which involved wading in the mud 
to find them. 

At length the steamer arrived, more like a small 
steam launch than a passenger boat. All on board were 
Japanese, and there were a great many passengers. 
We had no idea of investigating the cabins, in which 
no person over five foot could enjoy locomotion 
excepting on all fours. But the captain, who at 
once made our acquaintance, could talk a little 
English, of which he was very proud, and was 
delighted to point out objects of interest during 
the few hours we were on board. He startled us 
by telling us that the Czarevitch had been nearly 
murdered by a policeman the day before at Otsu, 



NAGOYA 



189 



at the south end of the lake, whither we were then 
on our way, and that he had been carried to Kioto. 
The man had struck him over the head and neck, 
and would certainly have killed him had not two 
kuruma men seized him. The consternation and 
excitement of the passengers may be imagined. 
The prominent feeling seemed to be distress at the 
disgrace that had thus been brought on their country, 
and that they would be looked upon as savages by 
other nations. To nothing is a Japanese so sensitive 
as to the suspicion that his nation is not looked upon 
as civilised, and therefore they felt keenly as a 
national slur the appearance of treachery to a guest. 

Nearing Otsu, we passed close in shore by 
Karasaki, and could examine at our leisure the 
celebrated pine-tree, said to be the largest, not the 
tallest, of its kind in the world. Its branches spread 
downwards and outwards on all sides, many of them 
being close to the ground. The height of the tree 
is said to be 90 feet, the circumference of the trunk 
37 feet, and the diameter covered by its branches 
from north to south 290, and from east to west 240 
feet. The branches, of course, are all propped and 
supported, so that the tree has the appearance of 
a very flattened banyan. It is evidently carefully 
tended, and any signs of decay are promptly treated. 

Arrived at the extremity of the lake, we found 
the town of Otsu in a ferment of excitement. It 
is a bustling, thriving little place, with wide streets, 
and a fine aqueduct, which has just been completed 
to convey the water thence to Kioto. It was to 



190 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



visit these works that the Czarevitch had come, 
when he was struck at by the policeman as he was 
returning from the formal opening of the tunnel. 
This tunnel, an example of bold engineering, pierces 
the mountain which bars the south end of Biwa. The 
tragic event took place exactly in front of the hotel 
where we rested, and the spot was being guarded by 
police. The would-be assassin was high in the force, 
over forty years of age, and had won distinction in 
the suppression of the Satsuma rebellion. He had 
been specially trusted with the care of the road for 
the passage of the Czarevitch. It is believed that he 
did the deed as a protest in revenge for the filching of 
Saghalien by Kussia, a piece of Muscovite diplomacy 
which Japan has never forgiven. He probably 
belonged to a secret society, and was appointed by 
lot to commit the crime. He had on him a stiletto 
to kill himself, but was prevented by being instantly 
seized by two kuruma men. But the secret history 
of the affair will never be known, as no Japanese 
conspirator will ever, under any torture, betray 
another. The Czarevitch was at once taken to Kioto, 
and on learning the news by telegraph, the Mikado 
at once started from Tokio to visit him. The people 
of all ranks were horror-struck, and one old lady in 
Otsu on hearing it at once committed suicide by 
harakiri, to show her indignation. 

As we dined sitting on the floor, while our land- 
lord chatted very freely and retailed all the gossip on 
the event of the day, we could not help feeling how 
strange it was that here we were, the two solitary 



NAGOYA 



191 



Europeans in a country town in the interior of Japan, 
the name of which had scarcely ever been heard 
before out of the country, and yet that on this 
morning the name of Otsu would be in every news- 
paper and every mouth throughout the whole civilised 
world. 

The only lion of Otsu besides the new aqueduct is 
a famous Buddhist temple sacred to Kwannon, the 
goddess of mercy, from which there is a lovely view 
of the lake, with the town in the foreground. It is 
not a very fatiguing walk to' Kioto, and certainly no 
one who can walk should indulge in the questionable 
luxury of a kuruma for this expedition. Taking a 
coolie with us, we first examined the entrance of the 
aqueduct into the tunnel, two miles long, and then, 
passing by the temple, we had a charming walk over 
an easy pass. On our way were several air-shafts 
piercing the hill for the ventilation of the tunnel. 

"When, having descended the hill, we emerged on 
the high road, w^e could well imagine the scene on 
the Tokaido before the introduction of railways. 
Dusty indeed and crowded it was, but it gave us 
an opportunity of noticing the great variety of type 
amongst the country people ; not less was the variety 
of the ingenious modes of carrying every kind of 
market and garden produce into this vast city. The 
peasantry do not show their gallantry in the matter 
of female labour, for a great part of the firewood was 
being brought into the town in huge bundles on the 
heads of the women, and women were tugcrin^ at the 
carts alongside of oxen. 



192 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



We lost the first impression of Kioto, as the sun 
had set, and had a weary tramp of two miles through 
the streets before we reached our intended hotel, 
reputed to be one of the best native hotels in Japan. 
To our dismay, we found that it was impossible to 
secure the humblest shelter here, for, as the landlord 
assured us, the crowd of the Mikado's suite had 
covered every mat. The landlord was an old 
acquaintance of my daughter, and, most anxious to 
serve us, recommended us to another hotel — alike in 
vain. We trudged on, to be shut out, homeless 
wanderers, everywhere. Dead tired, we at last betook 
ourselves to kurumas, and finally, at ten o'clock, in 
a remote part of the city found an inn, where they 
said they could give us one small room between us, 
and promised a paper screen to divide it, for they too 
were crammed with visitors. There was no help for 
it, unless we were prepared to spend the night in 
the streets. 



COLOSSAL IMAGE OF BUDDHA. 



195 



CHAPTER VI 

A SECOND VISIT TO KIOTO 

To know and understand Kioto would require a resi- 
dence of many weeks ; to describe it adequately, a 
volume of many pages. Short as was my time in 
Japan, the few days that in the first instance I gave 
to Kioto were so utterly insufficient that I was glad 
to have the opportunity of paying it a second visit 
on the eve of my departure, to supply some few of my 
many omissions. It is looked upon in Japan as the 
centre of the national life. For many centuries it 
was the gilded prison of the Mikado. It is emphati- 
cally a city of temples, and is still practically the 
religious metropolis of the nation. It fully justifies 
the reverence and admiration with which it is regarded 
by the people. 

It lies in a plain at the foot of the great central 
range of mountains, which may be compared to 
our own Pennine range, in the narrowest part of 
Hondo, the main island of Japan. Easy mountain 
roads converge to it from all quarters. It is only 
forty miles from Osaka, formerly the great harbour 
of the eastern coast, with which it has water com- 
munication. The plain is surrounded on three sides 
by mountains clad in perpetual green. Branches' of 
the river Yodogawa meander through the city, shaded 

o 2 



196 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



with ancient trees ; and though the streets are formal 
in their arrangement, running parallel and at right 
angles, yet the monotony is broken by the continually 
recurring gardens, groves and temples. Pagodas and 
shrines dot the mountain side, and the lower slopes 
are brightened by the variegated hues of innumerable 
gardens. But withal Kioto seems to tell one that 
its glories are of the past. It is the one city of Japan 
which shows at once that it has shrunken within its 
ancient limits, and ancient streets and squares are 
now transformed into suburban parks and fields. This 
has been the natural and necessary result of the 
transference of power from the Shogun to the Mikado, 
and the change of residence of the latter to Tokio, 
which is more and more the centre of national life. 

Kioto is, however, so continually visited by 
travellers and described by writers that my impres- 
sions are not likely to convey anything novel. We 
had the good fortune to see it en fSte, inasmuch as the 
emperor with his whole court arrived a few hours 
after ourselves to show his sympathy with the 
Czarevitch, and although we had secured our quarters, 
there was no sleep in Kioto that night. The emperor 
was expected about midnight, the whole city was 
illuminated, the national flag, white with the red rising 
sun in the centre, hung over every door, and a large 
paper lantern bearing the same colours was suspended 
beneath it. All the public buildings were lighted up 
with the electric light, and the result of the red and 
white winkling stars beneath the electric blaze was 
very effective. The perpetual din, coming and going, 



A SECOND VISIT TO KIOTO 



197 



ceaseless talking all night, banished sleep, and once I 
was roused by a visit from a policeman in search of a 
culprit. 

When we rose in the morning, our first question 
was naturally for the bath-room, inasmuch as there 
is no basin or convenience for washing in a Japanese 
room. All ablutions and toilet are performed out- 
side. The reply was, ' No bath here, for the 
bath-room is filled with boxes, but there is a very 
good bath opposite.' But ' opposite ' we soon found 
meant half-way down the street on the other side. 
There was nothing for it but to set off in slippers 
and dressing gown, towel and sponge in hand, to 
find it. Arrived, we found three or four baths in 
front of a kitchen, all open to the public, and each 
already occupied by at least one bather. The 
attendants offered, however, to run a slide to screen 
them from the street, but they could not provide 
a separate bath for each. Baulked and unwashed, 
we returned, and after some negotiation got tubs 
placed in a back garden. Having now returned to 
the abode of rank and fashion, we were obliged to 
look after the affairs of our wardrobe. A Chinaman 
who had a board opposite the hotel, announcing in 
pidgin English, ' Washman from Kobe,' introduced 
himself, followed by his rival, who asserted that he 
was 'wase man.' At length, attired in travelling 
best, we went to deliver introductions and cards, 
and to inquire at the hotel where the Czarevitch 
was staying. We found that his imperial highness 
had already gone down to Kobe, accompanied by 



198 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



the emperor, who escorted him on board a Kussian 
man-of-war. Thus prematurely was the imperial 
visit cut short. 

Distances are so great in Kioto that we were 
glad to engage kurumas by the day. Our first visit 
was to the Buddhist temples of Hongwanji, belonging 
to the purest sect, for we must remember that there 
are as many sects among them as in Christendom. 
This sect of the Shinshu has been already mentioned 
as being characterised by teaching the doctrine of 
justification by faith, not works. One of The leading 
priests here is an Oxford graduate, a member of 
Balliol College, who has recently written a work 
advancing further than this sect in general, and 
repudiating works of merit, since no man can justify 
himself or wash out his own past sins, but must 
rely on Buddha's righteousness, and do good works 
as fruits and proofs of faith. In the western 
Hongwanji temple there are many empty shrines 
with figures of great saints depicted on the walls, 
but no images excepting a very small wooden image, 
about two feet high, of the founder of the sect in 
the chancel, and in the dependent temple adjoining a 
gilt wooden figure of the Amida incarnation of Buddha 
about three feet high. 

The temple and its annexes, for they are really 
a series of great halls, give one rather the idea of 
picture galleries than of places of worship. I 
should have mentioned before a fine sacred tree 
in the courtyard in front, the Gingko biloba, 
which is believed to protect the temple against 



A SECOND VISIT TO KIOTO 



201 



fire by discharging showers of water whenever there 
is a conflagration in the neighbourhood. On the 
walls hang many a kakemono, i.e., hanging painted 
scrolls, glorifying Buddha, and also portraits of 
great divines, some of them said to be more than 
two or three centuries old. Most attractive in one 
of the great halls was a series of beautiful pictures 
of snow scenes on the sliding panels. One set 
represented the snow on pines, another on plum- 
trees, another on bamboos. The execution is ad- 
mirable, whatever may be said of the perspective. 
A very favourite flower in the decoration and carvings 
of this temple is the tree peony, which competes 
for distinction in these designs with the imperial 
chrysanthemum. One hall was surrounded with 
representations of flocks of geese in every conceivable 
position on a gold ground.. All these paintings, 
perfectly preserved as they are, seem to have been 
painted, not on the panels, but on paper which has 
been afterwards glued to the panels. One could 
not but regret that the effect of this magnificent 
group of buildings, whose architecture is so charac- 
teristic, is somewhat marred by a large adjacent 
structure, which has recently been erected in what 
is imagined to be European style. These buildings 
are a college for young priests, and also a girls' 
school, the intention being to supply a liberal 
education on modern lines, combined with training 
in the reformed Buddhism. 

Close by this temple is another cathedral edifice, 
the eastern Hongwanji, which is as yet unfinished, 



202 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



although it has been thirty years in rebuilding after 
the destruction of the ancient temple by fire. When 
completed it will be the largest temple in Japan, and 
it differs from almost every other temple in having 
its walls of massive masonry. Before it is finished, 
it is computed that it will have cost about a million 




A JAPANESE LADY. 



dollars. Whatever may be thought of the decay of 
Buddhism in general, there is certainly life and zeal 
in the Hongwanji sect, if we may judge by the 
voluntary offerings given not only by the rich, but 
by the poor, and that through the length and breadth 
of the nation. Many of the poorest have given both 



A SECOND VISIT TO KIOTO 



203 



their personal labour and gifts of material. Amongst 
the most remarkable evidences of devotion are the 
contributions of something like 250,000 women, who 
gave their hair as an offering to Buddha, to make 
the ropes employed in hoisting the great stones of 
the outer walls into their places. We saw fifty-three 
of these ropes of rich glossy black hair, each two spans 
in circumference. I am unable to state the length 
of each, but should think it was probably forty or 
fifty feet. When we know how the women of the 
country prize their hair, and the pains they take in 
arranging their rich black tresses, we cannot but 
recognise the devoted zeal which has impelled them 
to such a sacrifice. I should add that this temple 
has been built without any subvention from the 
state. The carvings of the ceiling and of the cornices, 
which were in course of execution, certainly show 
no falling off in the boldness and accuracy of 
Japanese art. 

But I will not weary my readers by the monotonous 
iteration of descriptions of Japanese temples, which 
are so uniform in general character. Our second day's 
sojourn we devoted to lionising the east side of Kioto. 
Here the city extends close to the foot of a mountain 
range, which is densely wooded to the bottom. It 
forms, in fact, a background rising immediately from 
the termination of the streets. Buried among the 
trees, high up and low down, are countless temples. 
Crowds of pilgrims, with their palmer's dress and great 
umbrella hat ; beggar children whining after us, * The 
eating thing I cannot do,' meaning that they have 



204 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



nothing to eat, and are ready for donations, fill every 
path. Walking up by the side of a cyclopean wall, 
we turned to see the celebrated Daibutsu (great 
Buddha), whose sacred enclosure is surrounded by this 
magnificent masonry. The Daibutsu owes its origin to 
the hero Hideyoshi, a little more than three hundred 
years ago. It has unfortunately more than once been 
destroyed by fire and earthquake, the two enemies of 
historic monuments in Japan. The original image 
was of bronze, destroyed by an earthquake. The 
present, a wooden one, which is only a hundred years 
old, consists simply of the head and shoulders of the 
sage. Some idea of its colossal size may be gained 
by a statement of the measurements, the height of 
the image being 60 feet, the face 30 feet long, the 
eyebrows 8 feet, and the shoulders 43 feet across. 
Gigantic as it is, if one can examine it from a sufficient 
distance, it will be seen that the conventional placidity 
of expression is most perfectly rendered. Outside is 
hung the great bell, weighing over 60 tons, and one 
of the largest in Japan. 

In another temple, the Sanju-Sangendo, con- 
taining 33,333 images of Kwannon, the goddess of 
mercy, are long corridors. There are 1,001 images 
of the goddess, life-size, and all gilded, placed 
tier behind tier. They are all the work of artists 
celebrated in history, and it is boasted that in not one 
of the thousand and one are the face or position of 
the hands or arrangement of the articles that they 
hold identical. The differences, however, are often 
very slight. The number 33,333 is made up by 



A SECOND VISIT TO KIOTO 



207 



reckoning all the smaller figures which are in the 
ornamentation, especially those on the gilded haloes 
which surround each head. In the centre of the 
temple is a large seated figure of Kwannon, sur- 
rounded by eight-and-twenty of her traditional 
followers. In the days of archery, the great triumph 
of a J apanese bowman was to be able to send an arrow 
from one end to the other of the verandah of this 
building. The cost of the statues of this temple must 
be fabulous. 

Near this is a Shinto- temple, without any 
images, but with the shrine simply occupied by 
a large mirror, encircled by two wreaths of white 
paper. To see the immense variety of temples on 
this mountain side, devoted to all kinds of hideous 
idols, to incarnations of Buddha, to gods of thunder, 
rain, wealth, pleasure, to the gods of every kind of 
disease, gives some idea of the strange divergence of 
practical Buddhism from the ideal theories which are 
propounded as Buddhism in the West. The children's 
Buddhist temple is worthy of a visit. It contains any 
number of small wooden Buddhas, arranged in shelves 
sloping back, tier over tier, and covered with the 
baby clothes of infants who have died under a year 
old. One of the most remarkable and beautiful of 
these temples, that of Kiyomigu, is a vast structure 
erected on a great framework, leaning, as it were, 
against the steep side of the mountain. The frame- 
work, as will be seen from the illustration on page 199, 
is many storeys high, and the roof is thatched. It is 
on one side of the ravine, with a similar but smaller 



208 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



temple facing it on the other side. Looking down 
from the platform, this dell gives the impression of 
a veritable abyss. Wide corridors encircle the temple 
on all four sides. The outer court is merely separated 
from them by the supporting columns of the roof, so 
that it is practically one vast open hall. At the further 
end is a long matted corridor, and within that the 
holy of holies, which contains the shrines, and where 
lights are kept burning. We had just left this temple 
when an unexpected rainfall drove us into a pagoda, 
which we could ascend, and under the verandah of the 
upper storey we opened our lunch bag and rested, 
with the magnificent panorama of the city and its 
plain in front. I could not regret that our temple- 
trotting was arrested by the rain, for two days of 
countless Buddhas and thousands of Kwannons had 
pretty well exhausted me, and even the finest w^orks 
of art when too often repeated become monotonous. 

As a contrast to the temple-covered mountain, 
next day we rode to the Doshisha, the earliest and 
greatest missionary educational institution in Japan, 
and of which the famous Joseph Neeshima, one of 
the earliest and most eminent of Japanese Christians, 
was principal until his death, the year before our visit. 
It was founded in 1875 by the American Board of 
Missions. I little expected to find so vast a col- 
lection of buildings. The grounds and halls cover 
many acres. There is a fine lofty chapel, a library 
of three thousand English volumes, halls and schools 
for theoretical and practical chemistry, physical science 
lecture halls with splendid apparatus, dining halls, 




p 



A SECOND VISIT TO KIOTO 



211 



a theological department ; all separate buildings 
in Western, not Japanese style, none of them 
excepting the chapel having any architectural pre- 
tensions. There are also dormitories for four hundred 
students, professors' houses and gardens ; in fact, a 
complete university in itself. The chemistry hall 
was built and furnished in 1890 by the gift of 
$100,000 from an American visitor, and another 
$100,000 was recently left it for the encouragement 
of physical studies by a Boston Unitarian. The 
larger part of the students are non- Christian, but 
under Christian influences and teaching many are 
continually seeking baptism. The theological schools 
are very well organised. Dr. Gordon, the senior 
professor, took us over every department, and asked 
the native principal, Mr. Neeshima's successor, to 
meet us at dinner. This is a grand piece of mis- 
sionary work on a large scale, and quite equal in 
its educational equipment to the Jesuit College of 
Tou-se-we, near Shanghai. 

We also visited the training college for nurses, 
which is under the management of the same mission. 
The hospital is small, but is large enough for its 
purpose, which is simply the training of nurses, and all 
the probationers as well as the nurses are Christians. 

One can hardly speak of the Doshisha without 
referring to the story of Joseph Neeshima's life. Long 
before the opening of Japan to either commerce or 
Christianity, Neeshima somehow got hold of a 
Chinese geography book compiled for a mission 
school, and beginning with the words, ' In the begin- 

P 2 



212 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



ning God created the heavens and the earth/ To 
the Buddhist student, who had never known any 
other faith, this was a startling discovery. What 
could it mean ? Who was that God ? Certainly He 
did not live in Japan. Perhaps He might live in 
America, whence the author of the book came. So 
at the peril of his life, for it was at that time death 
for a Japanese to leave his country, he made his way 
in a trader to China, and thence obtained a passage 
to Boston. Then he explained his errand to the 
captain who had brought him. c I came all this way,' 
said he, ' to find God, and there is no one to tell me.' 
The captain took him to the owner, a wealthy Chris- 
tian merchant, who received him as a son, and sent 
him to college. Eleven years afterwards, in 1875, 
he returned to Japan as a missionary under the 
American Board, and became president of the 
Doshisha College, just then founded. 

This Doshisha was the earliest college for higher 
education in Kioto, but after some years was 
followed by one of the three upper grade colleges 
maintained by the government, originally established 
in Osaka, but later removed to Kioto. Its buildings 
are in another suburb of the city, and though useful, 
are certainly not ornamental. It has often perplexed 
me why the Japanese, whose taste both in art and 
dress is perfect in their own style, when they attempt 
foreign style, whether it be in dress or architecture, 
not only do not approach the beautiful, but generally 
achieve the absolutely ugly. AVe had here the advan- 
tage of being the guests of Professor Sharpe, who is 



A SECOND VISIT TO KIOTO 



213 



pronounced by the Japanese to be the best English 
professor in Japan, and whose warm hospitality, rich 
fund of information and cultured criticism made our 
visit one of the most charming reminiscences of the 
tour. 

The passion for industrial exhibitions has reached 
Japan, or probably, a patriot would tell us, originated 
there. The Imperial Exhibition at Kioto, just now 
open, was a very European looking affair, and practi- 
cally nothing but a great bazaar. Its great attraction 
was that the purchaser of a .ticket for admission could 
through it obtain admission to what are called the 
Gardens of the Empress, and for visiting which this 
ticket was indispensable. The Mikado by this con- 
cession very substantially patronised the exhibition, 
and ensured its success. My visit to it gave me an 
opportunity of purchasing at very little cost small 
sets of tools of the various trades, carpenters, book- 
binders, engravers, etc., which by their striking origin- 
ality and contrast with our own are most valuable 
illustrations of Japanese art. As Kioto is a great 
centre for porcelain manufacture, we had oppor- 
tunities of watching parts of the process of production, 
and of laying in a store of choice vases for wedding 
presents. The part of the building best worth a visit 
was the department illustrative of the silk and em- 
broidery manufacture, in which also Kioto is pre- 
eminent. Scarfs, silk handkerchiefs and embroideries 
for screens of great delicacy and richness, in which I 
suppose Japan is unrivalled, must extract from any 
visitor of taste his last available yen. 



214 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



The Empress' Gardens, so named because they are 
attached to what was formerly the palace of the 
empress, are still at ordinary times looked on as the 
emperor's private grounds, and not at all as a public 
park. There is no great variety of flowers or shrubs, 
but the labyrinths, artificial liliputian mountains, 
ornamental waters, and lovely shaded walks with 
noble trees most artistically arranged, are its special 
features. Four wonderful specimens of wistaria, now 
one blaze of blossom, shaded the whole length of a 
very long bridge across an artificial lake. The 
wistaria at home I should be almost inclined to place 
before the cherry as the brightest floral glory of 
Japan. One seldom sees it in such masses as in this 
garden ; but it is abundant in all the forests, where 
its effect as it shoots its climbing branches from tree 
to tree, laden and apparently weighed down with 
rich purple clusters of bloom, contrasts magnificently 
with the azaleas, red, white and pink, below it. Nor 
is its effect less when, in the absence of forest tree to 
support it, it contents itself with forming a massive 
shrub not unlike a luxuriant blackberry in its mode 
of growth. 

We gave one day to rather a long expedition to 
the mountain known as Hieizan. The slopes of this 
mountain supply the favourite summer camping- 
ground of residents of Kioto and Osaka. Knowing- 
it would be a long day's work, we took kurumas to 
the mountain foot. It was indeed a hot climb up the 
rugged path. We reached a summit, and at first 
fancied we had won our goal ; but no, it was not the 



A SECOND VISIT TO KIOTO 



217 



summit. That was three miles further on. Fatiguing 
as the further climb was, the view of valleys on 
either side, and Kioto below us, its temples and 
gardens sprawling over a vast extent of plain, and 
wooded hills fringing the landscape beyond, with a 
peep of Lake Biwa, well repaid us. There was a little 
rest-shed on the way, but so full of rough men and 
boys that we were glad to find a pine-tree, which 
afforded some shade on the side of what was almost 
a precipice, where we contrived to sit and rest and 
enjoy the prospect as we lunched. I think the 
entomology on this mountain was the most varied I 
met with in the country. 

Mount Hieizan also was the scene of many 
of the exploits of Benkei, the Japanese Samson. 
According to the legend, he was eight feet high, and 
as strong as a hundred men. One of his feats was to 
carry a great temple bell up the mountain, but on 
reaching the summit the bell continuously cried out, 
' I want to go back, I want to go back,' whereupon he 
let it go rolling down to the mountain foot, where it 
may now be seen suspended in a temple In proof 
of the truth of the story, they show us the ravine 
which was ploughed out by the bell in its course from 
the top to the bottom of the mountain. On the 
mountain, amongst others, are two temples connected 
with each other by an arched gallery. The legend of 
these is that this was the yoke which Benkei wore 
on his shoulders, and by which he carried the twin 
temples and set them down where they now stand. 

During the Middle Ages Hieizan was the sacred 



218 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



mountain of Japanese Buddhism, and tradition raises 
the number of the temples which covered it to three 
thousand, containing many thousand warrior priests, 
who were nothing less than organised banditti, and 
were in the habit of making plundering excursions 
into the neighbouring country, taking part in the 
petty tribal wars of the different Daimios. It was 
not till about three hundred and fifty years ago that 
these monks, the terror of Kioto, were driven out of 
their strongholds, and all their temples and buildings 
burnt by the Shoguns. A century later the Toku- 
gawa Shoguns allowed the monasteries to be re- 
established, but strictly limited their number. The 
mountain still has a special sanctity, and until 
recently there was a notice at its foot, ' No woman or 
cow permitted to ascend this mountain.' Near the 
summit are the impression of two colossal feet carved 
in the rock, held by the devout to be the impression 
of Buddha's feet when he descended to visit Japan. 
Its sanctity, however, did not prevent my securing a 
very fair take of butterflies, which were flitting about 
as innocent as myself of the veneration expected of 
pilgrims to these sacred heights, and were most 
interesting, as many of them represent our familiar 
English forms of Vanessas, tortoise-shells, and 
fritillaries ; though, contrary to what happens in the 
case of mammals, the Japanese species seems to be 
always larger and finer than their European congeners. 

As the Mikado and his suite were at Kioto at the 
period of our first visit, we were not able to see the 
private apartments of the palace, but felt it was fully 



A SECOND VISIT TO KIOTO 



219 



worth while when at Osaka some weeks later to run 
over on purpose to inspect them, and well were we 
rewarded. A tall monotonous wall, covered with 
stucco and roofed with thatch, surrounds the park 
in which the cluster of buildings forming the palace 
stand. There are several gates, the centre one being 
never opened but for the Mikado himself. Passing 
the sentries and presenting our letter, we were 
admitted to a lodge within the gate, where we were 
met by a most courteous gentleman and old official of 
the Mikado, evidently a man of liberal education — a 
sort of hereditary chamberlain, as we presumed from 
his telling us that he succeeded his father in atten- 
dance on the late Mikado, and with natural pride he 
pointed out to us, as we passed through the palace, 
his own portrait in a large wall painting representing 
a grand annual procession, After signing our names 
in a large register, he conducted us across the grounds, 
which are beautifully kept in native fashion, to the 
reception-hall, only used on state occasions and 
festivals. The panels are covered with paintings, 
but the best pictures have been removed to Tokio, 
as the emperor does not often reside here. Here we 
were shown the Mikado's throne, with canopy and 
rich curtains of white, red, and black silk, within 
which the emperor used to be seated on a mat. The 
imperial badge of the chrysanthemum with sixteen 
petals was worked in everywhere, in cornices and 
curtains, and seemed to be repeated wherever there 
was space to receive it. Yet with all this, there was 
a strange air of desolation about these cold and 



220 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



silent chambers. In a second and much larger hall 
was a more modern throne, in which the emperor sat 
in a chair, enclosed in curtains of the richest silk, 
which only permitted his feet to be seen. 

In front of this throne is a flight of eighteen wide 
steps leading to the great court below. Each of the 
steps corresponded to a particular rank of the old 
nobility. Officials not noble were obliged to stand 
on the earth below the lowest step, and great were 
the heartburnings amongst the Daimios, and many 
the feuds engendered, by one obtaining a higher 
grade than another on this staircase of rank. A long 
corridor led from this hall to the library or study of 
the palace, a very fine room with priceless lacquer 
boxes arranged on shelves to hold the emperor's 
books. 

Our charming guide told us that he spent many 
hours a day with the late emperor here in his 
study, for he was a great student and very fond of 
geography. Though never able to go beyond the 
grounds of the palace, he was most curious as to 
what went on in the outside world, and used to ask 
all sorts of questions from his courtiers and atten- 
dants. Practically, with the exception of one or two 
annual processions, in which he was concealed, he 
never could go beyond the thirty acres of ground 
that composed the park and gardens of his palace. 
What an idea of gilded misery that palace gives one ! 
The private chambers of the old Mikados, separated 
from the great hall, and the sliding screens of which 
were richly decorated, consist of eleven rooms, in 



A SECOND VISIT TO KIOTO 



221 



which for six hundred years the successive Mikados 
have lived and died. The ordinary sitting-room was 
surrounded by the apartments of his female atten- 
dants, through whom alone a message could be taken 
to him, when he passed to a room at the other end, 
where he received his officials. Behind this are nine 
handsome bedrooms, with richly painted panels, the 
centre one being the emperor's, so that he is carefully 
secluded at night, as in the day. Our courtier guide 
told my daughter anecdotes of the late Mikado, and 
expressed his satisfaction at having for once to con- 
duct a visitor who could converse in Japanese, as he 
generally had to go through his explanations in 
pantomime, for no guides or servants are permitted 
to cross the gates. 

Our courteous friend told us that we ought to see 
the Castle of Nijo, or old Shogun's palace, to see which 
he would give us a letter to the chamberlain there. 
We parted with much ceremony, and when we told 
our men to take us to the castle they demurred, 
telling us it was of no use. We evidently rose in 
their estimation when on presenting our letter the 
sentry let us pass. A stately official received the 
document with a profound reverence, and preceded 
us within the precincts. Certainly the best had been 
kept to the last. It is by far the most palatial palace 
we had seen, surpassing Nagoya, with lavish decora- 
tions and gilding everywhere, but all in the best taste. 
It is larger than the palace, except for the great 
audience hall, and certainly the Shogun took care of 
himself at his superior's expense. Instead of the 



222 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



eighteen steps for the various ranks in the Mikado's 
palace, there were seven steps, on which according to 
their rank the highest Daimios could stand. The 
minor Daimios could not stand even on the lowest of 
these. It was very interesting to hear the account 
of all these old-world ceremonials from those who had 
themselves taken part in them. All the walls and 
ceilings were painted in panels, the series of subjects 
differing for each room and wonderfully ingenious. 
We may remark that its decorations are on a much 
larger and vaster scale than those I have seen else- 
where in the country. Each hall is named from the 
subject of its decoration. In the tiger hall there are 
perhaps a dozen tigers in different attitudes, and 
both the animals and the plants of the jungle are all 
represented life-size, as are the eagles and peacocks 
in other rooms. Everywhere was to be seen the 
gilt trefoil crest of the Tokugawa Shoguns, except in 
the one suite reserved for the Mikado, when once a 
year he came to visit him, and there the gold 
chrysanthemum is on every hinge and handle and 
panel. We were delighted with this grand old 
feudal castle. It is not a little amusing to observe the 
different opinions that are given concerning it. One 
guide book describes it as ' an old and dingy build- 
ing ' ; another, as I venture to think much more truly, 
says, ' This palace, a dream of golden beauty within, 
is externally a good example of the Japanese fortress, 
with its turrets at the corners and its walls of 
cyclopean masonry. It is, however, only a fraction 
of its former self/ 



225 



CHAPTER VII 

OSAKA 

From Kioto to Osaka, from Edinburgh to Glasgow, 
from history, arts, and literature to commerce and 
manufactures ! The train winds amongst hills for a 
few miles, then for the rest of the way down the 
valley of the Yodogawa, through paddy fields as 
uninteresting as Chatmoss. From the top of a hill 
midway between Kioto and Osaka both cities are 
plainly visible. A propos of this view, I may give an 
illustration of the Japanese iEsop. Once upon a 
time an Osaka frog, having heard the fame of the 
beauties of Kioto, thought he could not do better than 
migrate thither. Another frog resident in Kioto 
heard wonderful tales of the bustle and liveliness of 
Osaka, and w T earied of Kioto, determined to change 
his home. Meeting at the top of the hill, where each 
hoped to obtain a view of the paradise to which he 
was bound, they raised themselves up full of eager 
expectation, forgetting that in that posture a frog 
looks backward. ' Well, really,' said the dweller 
among the Osaka swamps, ' Kioto looks uncommonly 
like Osaka, and every bit as flat. I could not do 
better than go home again.' ' So that is Osaka/ 
exclaimed the resident of the capital ; 6 how wonder- 

Q 



226 



RAMBLES IK JAPAN 



fully similar it is to Kioto ! I don't see that I 
should be the gainer by proceeding.' And both frogs 
returned home well satisfied, and with no desire to 
pursue their acquaintance with the outer world. 
Moral — Don't look at everything through your own 
spectacles. 

Osaka, with a population of nearly half a million, 
is the second city in the empire, and whilst being 
the Manchester of Japan, is at the same time an 
ancient city, and first came into prominence in the 
sixteenth century, when Hideyoshi, who has been 
called the Napoleon of Japan, made it his fortress and 
capital. But he has greater claims on the respect and 
admiration of Europe than even his development of 
the commerce of Osaka and his extension of the 
Japanese empire, for amongst many wise measures 
of internal policy he gave toleration to the Christians, 
and it was under his rule that the Eoman Catholic 
missions were spread over the whole country. His 
favourite general and many of his best troops were 
Christians, and with them he invaded and endeavoured 
to conquer Corea, as a step to the subjugation of 
China. He succeeded in utterly crushing the inde- 
pendence and also, alas ! the civilisation of Corea, but 
failed to make any impression upon the Flowery 
Land. Since his invasion of Corea, although after 
his death the Japanese troops were withdrawn, the 
peninsula seems to have sunk into still lower depths 
of degradation ; and the nation which was once the 
instructress of Japan in art, and the masterpieces 
of some of whose artists still exist, has sunk to such 



OSAKA 



227 



a state as to have earned from a recent well 
known traveller the character of being the dregs of 
humanity. 

The Castle of Osaka, which still exists, was com- 
menced by Hideyoshi in 1583, and was completed in 
two years. It was said to be the strongest fortress 
in the country, as the palace which it contained was the 
most magnificent. The encircling wall and the sides 
of the moat are composed of masonry twenty feet thick, 
in the cyclopean style, without mortar and with no 
filling in, but solid throughout. The finest specimens 
of these huge stones are near the principal gateway. 
There is an amusing tradition of the stratagem by 
which Hideyoshi obtained his materials cheaply. He 
proclaimed over the whole country his intention of 
building this fortress, and announced an enormous 
prize to be given to the man who should produce the 
largest stone. The prize was great enough to tempt 
all classes, from the greatest Daimios downwards, 
and the largest junks that could be obtained 
were despatched from every part of the empire 
freighted with massive fragments of rock to the 
harbour of Osaka. In due time the prize was 
awarded, but to only one amongst many hundred 
competitors. The unsuccessful rivals were told they 
might carry their stones back again, but this permis- 
sion, not being remunerative, was not taken advantage 
of, and Hideyoshi obtained materials and carriage 
free of cost. The castle was captured thirty years 
after its erection by Iyeyasu, and its memory must 
be ever preserved as that of the place where in 1868 

Q 2 



228 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



Iyeyasu's descendant, the last of the Tokugawa 
Shoguns, received the members of the foreign legations 
and for the last time exercised the usurped imperial 
power. 

Compelled to abandon it the same year, the 
Shogun's retainers before departing set it on fire, and 
m a few hours the grandest building in Japan was a 
heap of smouldering ruins. The fortifications now 
serve as the headquarters of the military district, 
and an artillery depot and barracks have been erected 
on the site of the ancient keep or donjon, the one 
remaining feature of which is a deep and copious 
well capable of supplying the whole garrison in time 
of siege. 

From the summit we had an unbroken view 
of the whole of this Oriental Venice, with its six 
hundred bridges and canals, a complete network, and 
the plain beyond, bounded by two ranges of hills. 
The number of tall factory chimneys standing out in 
the distance were a striking contrast to the gardens 
which varied a similar panorama of Kioto, and were 
certainly not congruous with the associations of the 
historic ramparts within which we were standing. 
One fact of interest in connection with the Castle of 
Osaka is that here for the last time the national 
practice of harakiri, or suicide, was permitted as a 
favour to criminals of honourable birth in lieu of 
lecapitation. Twelve Samurai, who were sentenced 
to death for the murder of a French sailor, claimed 
this privilege in 1868. 

With the castle we have done with the historic 



OSAKA 



229 



features of Osaka ; for its popular sights — the mint, 
the match factories, the cotton mills, the iron 
foundries, the timber yards — attractive though they 
may be to the merchant, are not what we have 
crossed three oceans to see. 

But one temple should be mentioned, Tennoji, a 
large group of buildings in fine, park-like grounds, 
one of which is the children's temple. At its shrine 
were hundreds of children's clothes, hanging from 
ceiling to floor on pegs and on little figures of 
Buddha, and babies' bibs covered the bell-ropes. 
These were all the garments of deceased infants 
offered by the mothers. A priest sitting on a mat 
gives the bereaved mother, for a fee, a shaving of 
wood with the name of the dead child written on it. 
This she takes to another shrine, where is a pool of 
water issuing from the mouth of a colossal stone 
tortoise. The pool is full of these slips. They are 
cast into it just where the water pours in from the 
tortoise's mouth, and happy is the woman whose slip 
gets well soaked at once. It is believed that this 
will ensure the child an easy passage to heaven, as 
the water conveys the name to Buddha, who at once 
calls for them as he reads them. 

To me, naturally, the attractions of Osaka centred 
in the vast and successful missionary work which 
is there carried on. In the narrow district of which 
Osaka is the centre, and the population of which is 
over a million, there are six American missionary 
organizations at work and one English, the Church 
Missionary Society, which has a very complete and 



230 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



extensive organization. All these are working in 
perfect harmony without the least friction, as well 
they may in a city of half a million, besides the 
suburbs. Besides these is a French Roman Catholic 
mission. It may give some idea of missionary life 
here to describe my experiences of Whit Sunday at 
Osaka. I was lodged in the Bishop Poole Memorial 
School, a large boarding-school for giving higher 
education on a Christian basis to Japanese girls of 
the middle and upper classes, over which my 
daughter presides, founded in memory of Bishop 
Poole, the first Anglican missionary bishop. After 
breakfasting at half-past seven o'clock, we made our 
way into a very poor part of the city, where my 
daughter holds a Sunday school. We were accom- 
panied by one of the native teachers and three of 
the elder girls, who here take classes, and are thus 
beginning to train for missionary work. The school 
was a poor woman's dwelling-house. Partitions had 
all been cleared away, and furniture there was none, 
and thus the three rooms of which the house con- 
sisted were thrown into one. As soon as the singing 
and prayer were over, the teachers squatted on the 
mats, each with her class in a semicircle. Some of 
the mothers accompanied their children. It happened 
that on this very morning the first-fruits of this little 
mission were reaped, when a woman stayed behind 
and applied to be prepared for baptism, and also to 
bring to the font her two little children. She 
accompanied us to the native service, that she might 
be introduced to Mr. Terasawa, the native clergyman, 



OSAKA 



233 



as a catechumen. Mr. Terasawa is the pastor of 
Trinity (not Trinity Chapel), our oldest native church, 
a large, well-built structure, quite in the native 
style, yet unmistakably ecclesiastical. An English 
missionary read prayers in Japanese, and Mr. Tera- 
sawa preached. There were two adult baptisms, one 
the wife of a judge, a leading man of rank here, 
who himself is also looking for baptism ; the other, a 
clerk in a government office. One of my daughter's 
pupils was to be baptized, but as an infant, at the 
evening service. There were about seventy com- 
municants—more than half the adult congregation. 
Service over, we went by invitation to morning tea 
at the parsonage next door. Mr. Terasawa's wife 
speaks English well, and her husband, though not 
able to converse fluently, is able to read English 
well, and had a well-selected, if small, English theo- 
logical library in his quaint little study. I did not 
visit the afternoon school, as I had an opportunity of 
joining in English worship at Trinity College, in a 
very neat college chapel, which would not have 
discredited an English university, and was built from 
the designs of one of our missionaries, Mr. Pole. The 
congregation numbered about fifty, and all, excepting 
the English head of the Japanese Concession Police, 
belonged to the families either of our own or the 
American missionaries. 

In the evening I went with Mr. Fyson, one 
of our pioneer missionaries, who was to take the 
preaching at a mission-room. This was one kept 
up by Miss Holland, a lady who, unconnected 



234 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



with any society, devotes herself, at her own cost, 
to helping mission work. She had argued that in 
a country where the people are not familiar with 
the Sabbath day's rest, there were many who would 
like to hear something of Christianity, bub might 
be told, ' This is not the preaching night,' and so 
might delay or forget. But if there was preaching 
every night, no chance would be missed. She there- 
fore hired a house close to some markets in a very 
busy street, put in a harmonium, got the place new 
matted, hung bright pictures of the Eeligious Tract 
Society all round the walls, got a large lantern, pro- 
jecting in front, with the announcement on the 
transparent paper on one side, ' Teaching of Christ 
to-night,' and on the other were depicted a cross and 
a crown. She engaged an old woman to look after 
the place, and open and light it every evening. She 
gets one or two friends to help her with the singing, 
and has managed to secure a preacher, native or 
foreign, lay or cleric, every evening for months. For 
some time, when the venture was first started, the 
noise and jeering sometimes almost stopped the 
preacher. But that phase, inevitable at the beginning 
of every such work, had nearly passed over. When 
we arrived we found the three matted rooms packed 
full, and a crowd standing ten deep in the street. 
After a hymn, started by two English ladies, Mr. 
Fyson, standing at the edge of the room, held the 
people for over half an hour by what seemed to me a 
torrent of eloquence as he spoke of Pentecost. Texts 
on the subject, painted in great letters on kakemonos, 



OSAKA 



235 



were hung in front, so that all could read. After 
singing again, I too was expected to speak, and a 
more difficult task than addressing a crowd with an 
interpreter I never had, and I think it is impossible 
to be interesting under such conditions. There may 
have been two hundred listeners, and the meetings 
here have already been the means of bringing not a 
few into the Christian fold. There are many such 
preaching-places in Osaka, but what are they amongst 
half a million ? 

Nor are these efforts confined to the city itself. 
I walked out with my daughter one afternoon to a 
similar meeting three miles from the outskirts of the 
city, to a so-called village of three thousand souls, 
employed in making coarse pottery and farming. We 
had a most uninteresting walk first through narrow 
streets and past factory chimneys, and then along a 
raised path through paddy fields till we reached a 
broad river, and were ferried across to the village. 
As I turned round I counted from one spot sixty-two 
factory chimneys, for this is becoming the great 
cotton-spinning centre. The use of a house was 
hired for this weekly meeting, to which the head 
teacher and three senior pupils went with us, to carry 
the picture and help in the singing. The rooms of 
the house being thrown together, about sixty people, 
chiefly women, soon assembled. Slipping off our 
shoes at the door, we passed to the inner end, which 
was open to the garden. A large coloured print of 
the Ascension was unrolled and pinned up, and a 
hymn was sung, only joined in by the visitors. 



236 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



Then the teacher spoke for half an hour, then again 
there was singing, which always attracts these people, 
another address from my daughter explaining the 
Ascension, and then singing and prayer concluded 
the meeting. This is a new mission, and there are 
no Christians yet, but several are interested, and the 
people were all very quiet and attentive. This is 
the simple way in which out-stations begin, and the 
seed is sown. On our return we halted at a tea- 
house in a village where there was formerly a similar 
meeting, until the Buddhist priest interfered and 
threatened any one who should lend their house for 
the purpose. This is the kind of local opposition 
which we must always expect from time to time ; but 
what is this compared to the resistance of the Irish 
priesthood ? 

There being no division of days into weeks in this 
country is at first a difficulty, but for convenience' 
sake, since the increase of foreign trade, the govern- 
ment have made Sunday a dies non in all schools, 
government offices, and other official places. But the 
people generally have hardly got familiarised with 
this, and adhere to their old division into ten days, 
holding a night fair in various parts of the town 
every fifth day. Advantage is taken of these even- 
ings for special preaching. 

What is called the Concession is a district assigned 
to the foreigners in each treaty port when the country 
was first opened, and where alone they are allowed to 
hold land. But as the river at Osaka is much silted 
up, and is of no use for ocean-going vessels, the large 



OSAKA 



237 



shipping has entirely deserted it and dropped down 
to Kobe, twenty miles off, which is practically the 
seaport of Osaka. The merchants, with hardly an 
exception, have abandoned the large and spacious 
houses which they had built, till the whole foreign 
population of Osaka is limited to the various mission- 
ary bodies, who have had the opportunity of securing 
quarters which they would not have built for them- 
selves. The principal English Mission institutions, 
besides the girls' school already mentioned, are 
Trinity College, for the training of theological 
students ; a large boys' boarding school, in a distant 
part of the city, intended to provide for the boys the 
same style of education which the Bishop Poole 
School affords to their sisters ; and the Bible Women's 
training home, a most important part of the work, 
where not only the women are trained to be mission- 
aries to their sisters throughout the country, but 
during their training are useful in the work in Osaka. 

The boys' high school, which is four miles from the 
Concession, had not at the time of our visit been long 
in operation ; yet, though it has to compete with the 
government school, it had at the time of our visit, 
besides day scholars, thirty-eight boarders, but is 
calculated for the accommodation of a hundred and 
twenty, and by special subscriptions raised for the 
purpose admirable apparatus has been supplied, and 
the dining-hall, class-rooms, bath-rooms and dormi- 
tories are all in keeping, and the school is under the 
able direction of Mr. Price, son of a veteran African 
missionary. 



238 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



But, perhaps, looking to the future, the most im- 
portant of our institutions is Trinity College. There 
are usually between twenty and thirty students. 
The third year of their four- years' course is spent 
in practical catechist's work in the country, a most 
important part of their training. It is a very 
complete Divinity College. Its excellent buildings 
leave nothing to be desired. The street facade is of 
brick, plain but handsome, and on either side of the 
doorway is a Japanese inscription cut in the stone, 
and which may be literally translated, ' The one- 
God-in-three teaching-house.' Within is a quad- 
rangle which has quite an Oxford air, one side 
formed by the chapel, another by the principal's 
house, and the other two by the dining-hall and 
lecture-rooms downstairs, the dormitories with deep 
verandahs being upstairs. There are four lecture- 
rooms, a small library of standard theology, and the 
vice-principal's sitting-room. Behind the quadrangle 
are the bath-rooms, kitchens and offices with abundant 
space. 

Our last Sunday in Osaka was a red-letter day, 
being that of the consecration of the new Church of 
the Saviour, making the fourth Episcopal church, 
besides nine mission-rooms. The church was in the 
place of an old and smaller one destroyed in a 
conflagration which devastated a large part of the 
city. No less than fourteen clergy, foreign and 
native, mustered for the occasion. The church is 
large and handsome, with nave and aisles with 
granite pillars for the five arches on either side, 



OSAKA 



239 



a good wide chancel and west porch. The native 
churchwardens and officials met the procession 
headed by the bishop as we passed from the vestry 
to the west door, and there read, quite in English 
fashion, the petition for consecration. Archdeacon 
Warren preached what was evidently a very powerful 
sermon, but all the rest of the service, excepting the 
bishop's part, was taken by the native clergy. The 
sight was a very impressive one, and then at the 
Communion none but non-Christians seemed to leave. 
It was a crammed congregation that remained to 
communicate. 

In the afternoon, whilst I had been addressing 
the students in the college, my daughter had been 
occupied in a very touching way. A little girl, 
twelve years old, a very poor street child who had 
attended the cottage Sunday school I have described, 
had been touched and sought instruction for baptism. 
Her father, a kuruma man, had given his consent, 
when the child became ill and was sent to hospital. 
This morning, on our way to church, we received a 
message that the surgeon had to perform an operation 
on the child as the only chance of saving life, but she 
would most probably sink under it. This being told 
to the girl, she sent at once to say that she must first 
be baptized. My daughter arranged with Mr. 
Terasawa to baptize the little convert after the con- 
secration, which he did. In the evening we met a 
Christian man coming to tell us that the child had 
died, and the parents wanted a Buddhist funeral. 
This my daughter could not agree to, as the parents 



240 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



had given their full consent to the child's baptism, 
and she claimed her as a Christian. We attended the 
burial the next day, one of the most touching funerals 
in which I ever joined. The little coffin was covered 
with a white cloth and a cross of white azaleas upon 
it, followed by a few Christian women and the heathen 
parents, whilst a number of kuruma men (her father's 
comrades) stood crowding round the door, marvelling 
in the interest, that foreigners could take in a poor 
coolie's child. 

Shortly before my departure I had a thoroughly 
Japanese compliment in a shimbokkwai, the native 
equivalent of a farewell dinner. Every member of 
the three Church Missionary Society congregations 
in Osaka had been invited. The large hall of the 
school had been cleared and decorated. Singing by 
the children, speeches — of the purport of which I could 
only guess until they were interpreted — tea and cakes 
followed each other in rapid succession. Amongst 
the speeches I had to make one describing Palestine, 
and this was interpreted by Mr. Fyson, paragraph by 
paragraph. Afterwards I had some mysterious draw- 
ings sent me on long strips of paper, two of which I 
found were poems in my honour by a Christian poet 
of one of the congregations. 

As an illustration both of the rapid development 
of European arts and of mission work, I may mention 
an expedition which I took with one of our mission 
ladies, Miss Cox, to a very large match manufactory, 
employing over a thousand women and girls. This 
factory was established by a Japanese gentleman who 



OSAKA 



241 



had spent three years in London studying the process 
as carried on there. These women, who are looked 
upon as an inferior caste, not only by the makers of 
artificial flowers, but also by the still lower cotton 
factory girls, have no instruction whatever ; and the 
proprietor, himself a Buddhist, asked a Buddhist 
priest to do something for them. He declined, on 
the ground that the people were too poor to pay for 
anything. Our missionaries, hearing this, offered 
their services, which were accepted by the owner, 
who thought any instruction, would be good for them. 
We had a kuruma ride of some miles to the factory, 
where we were very courteously received by the 
owner, who showed us over the works, where every- 
thing is done, to the packing in huge cases for trans- 
port to India and China, except the cutting and 
splitting of the wood into the proper size, this being 
done at another factory. The boxes are made at the 
people's homes, and is the worst paid occupation in 
Osaka, but the labels are put on at the factory. 
Each match passes through fourteen hands, and each 
operation is carried on in a separate shed. It was 
a curious sight to see the long rows of women, all 
nude to the waist, sitting at their work. 

A warehouse was placed at Miss Cox's disposal, and 
at dinner time an announcement made that the foreign 
lady would like to tell any who were not at work 
about Christianity. In a minute there was a general 
rush, the women hastily drawing up their dress over 
their shoulders, and shouting wildly. We got them 
to sit down in a semicircle ; when Miss Cox, who 

R 



242 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



had hung up a large and brightly coloured picture 
of the Prodigal Son, began in a ringing voice, and at 
once there was dead silence and all attention. I 
counted up to three hundred, when I abandoned the 
attempt. Of course, I understood not a word that 
was said ; but the proprietor, standing throughout, 
was evidently pleased and interested, and for three- 
quarters of an hour the audience remained. The 
wages of these people range only from threepence to 
sixpence a day. 

Whilst in Osaka I had an opportunity of getting 
an insight into the necessary accomplishments of a 
well-bred young lady. First and foremost of these 
is the art of flower arranging, lessons in which are 
given in the Bishop Poole Girls' School by a lady, 
at whose lesson I was once permitted to be present. 
The same lady also gives lessons there on a very 
important subject, the mysteries of which I do not 
pretend to have fathomed, i.e., the proper mode of 
making and partaking of ceremonial tea. In one of 
her lectures I was the unfortunate victim operated 
upon, i.e., I had to act the passive part of the visitor, 
nis duty being to remain sitting in a posture which 
to me was by no means restful, and silent for three- 
quarters of an hour ; whilst the hostess, with great 
dignity, grace and solemnity, brings forward one 
part of the apparatus after another. With intense 
exactitude she places each in its appointed spot, 
passes a carefully folded silk duster over each, and 
finally ladles hot water on to the tea-powder in 
the bowl, and this, after being whisked up till it 



OSAKA 



245 



froths, is handed to the visitor, who has to consume 
it in a specified number of gulps and make no 
grimaces. 

The story of the origin of this strange yet typical 
ceremony, performed by the daughter at home when 
it is desired to do special honour to a guest, is as 
follows : — Some centuries ago, when the country was 
in a disturbed state, a great statesman, fearing civil 
war, invented the intricate details of this art of tea- 
making to compose and calm the minds of the people. 
So completely did he succeed that all thought of the 
impending war was soon abandoned, and his fame 
has come down to posterity as the professor of tea. 

When speaking of the lessons in bouquet arrange- 
ment I might have described one of the most charac- 
teristic sights of Osaka, which I was fortunate enough 
to witness — the annual spring flower show and fair. 
It was confined to a certain part of the town, but even 
so for about a mile flower-pots and plants of every 
kind seem to have taken the place of all the ordinary 
wares in the shops, whilst the narrowest passage 
remained in the centre of the street, lined by stands 
of flower-pots on either side. There was every 
variety of horticultural produce, from medallioned 
chrysanthemums and champion peonies to the humblest 
ferns from the woods, and potsherds containing the 
root of some wild flower beseechingly offered for a 
few rin by the most squalid of the poor. It seemed 
to be the one opportunity for many a poor outcast to 
earn an honest farthing. It was impossible to resist 
the silent appeals, far more successful than the noisy 



246 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



importunities of an Arab bazaar. The purchasing 
mania was irresistible, and we hired one kuruina after 
another to carry home our floral purchases, having 
invested in a whole forest of dwarfed pines, maples, 
and oranges, the largest of which could be covered by 
a hat. The most curious thing of all was a large 
shallow flower-pot containing what might be called a 
doll-house garden, but all of actually living plants, 
with little walks, and microscopic mountains and 
lakes, the latter spanned by bridges, and the former 
with houses perched about them. 



247 



CHAPTER VIII 

SHIKOKU 

Xot the least interesting expedition which we made 
from Osaka was one to the neighbouring island of 
Shikoku, an island which even yet is very rarely 
visited by foreigners, excepting those connected with 
the few mission stations. It. is in area the fourth of 
the great islands which constitute the empire, and 
may be called the Wales of Japan, and the island of 
Awaji, an intermediate link with the main island, 
suggests the Isle of Man. In its physical aspect, too, 
its bold mountainous character reminds one of Wales, 
while in the south part of the island there is a dense 
population, rich mines, and extensive manufactures. 
It is divided into four provinces, or as a Japanese 
geographer has expressed it, ' It has one body and 
four faces, and each face has a name.' Quaint 
indeed are these names, their literal translation benw 
' Lovely Princess,' ' Prince Good-boiled-rice,' ' Princess 
of Great-food,' and 'Brave Good-youth.' The people 
of Shikoku, and especially of the south, have always 
been reputed to be the most turbulent and democratic, 
which is probably explained by their employments 
being largely mining and manufacturing. In this 
part of the country the American Presbyterian 
Mission has been at work for some years. The 
result may be judged of by the fact that this island 



248 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



has returned several Christians to the Japanese 
Parliament, and among them was the Speaker of the 
first House of Commons. 

Our voyage from Osaka to Tokushima in this 
island, though not long, was certainly amusing, the 
accommodation and arrangements being purely 
Japanese. The voyage being in an almost entirely 
land-locked sea, the boat was constructed rather after 
the model of a river steamer than of an ocean-going 
boat, and, with due consideration to the economising 
of the passengers' time, was made at night. Soon 
after sunset, preceded by a boy with a barrow and 
lantern, we went down to the wharf, from which we 
entered the steamer through a hole in her side, and 
then up a ladder on to the deck. But the deck was 
only a space of two feet all round the ship, the centre 
being occupied by the third-class cabin, which was 
just five feet high, being intended for sitting and 
sleeping in, certainly not for walking. There being 
no berths, ' first come, first served,' was the rule, and 
the passengers as they arrived promptly secured 
quarters for the night by spreading a red blanket 
and disposing their persons thereupon. Into this we 
had to go on all-fours, creep across it while the 
passengers were lying thick, and get down another 
ladder to the second-class cabin, which occupied the 
whole width of the vessel. Taking off our shoes, we 
could, stooping, walk along it into the first-class cabin, 
of the same width, with plenty of port-holes open 
for air, and a fixed bench along each side. The floor 
was carpeted over the mats, and two or three feeble 



SHIKOKU 



249 



oil lamps suspended were just enough to make dark- 
ness visible. . The circumambient bench, which 1 
had erroneously imagined to be berths, proved to be 
only the receptacle intended for baggage. However, 
spreading my rug, I made myself comfortable on the 
bench, with my head close to an open port-hole. 
Happily there were only two passengers besides 




LADY MISSIONARIES HOUSE. 



ourselves, both Japanese gentlemen, and we had 
abundant space in a cabin supposed to accommodate 
twenty of both sexes. With the full complement, 
sardines in a box would have been a fitting com- 
parison. For an hour or two tea was continually being 
served, pipes smoked, and conversation was cease- 
less ; while my daughter, more acclimatised than my- 
self, sat country fashion on the floor with her writing 



250 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



board on her knees. Quaint and novel as was my 
bedchamber, I had a fairly good night's rest, though 
I could not but regret that we were losing some of 
the most charming scenery, equal to that of the 
Inland Sea, as we coasted down the west side of the 
island of Awaji. At 4.30 a.m. we were roused to go 
and wash in turns outside, before the second class ; 
according to the due precedence of first-class pas- 
sengers. My toilet completed, I clambered on to the 
top of the third-class cabin, and had a lovely view of 
the labyrinth of islets, all well wooded, through which 
we were winding. For the last hour we steamed up 
a wide sluggish river till we reached Tokushima, and 
before landing were supplied with a Japanese break- 
fast on the floor. All the other passengers, being 
natives, had been allowed to land at once, but we had 
co wait until the police functionary, not an early 
riser, could condescend to come on board and examine 
our passports. This formality over, we drove across 
the city to the house of Mr. Buncombe, of the Church 
Missionary Society, our kind host. With 61,000 
inhabitants, it is the tenth city in Japan, while the 
island has nearly 4,000,000. The second city, Kochi, 
is rather further off than Cork is from Belfast, and 
though less populous than Tokushima, is more im- 
portant for its manufactures, and has a well-manned 
American Presbyterian Mission. 

Mr. Buncombe had been out in Japan four years, 
and was the first missionary ever stationed here, but 
the church had been gradually growing up for some 
years before his arrival, and had been visited from 



SHIKOKU 



253 



the Osaka Mission. There is a church and native 
parsonage with an ordained native pastor, partly 
supported by the people, and two preaching-rooms in 
different parts of the city, which I visited, with two 
native catechists at work, besides one itinerating in 
the surrounding villages. Two lady missionaries had 
also recently arrived, and were settled in a pretty 
little Japanese cottage not far from the mission 
station. 

There is not much of striking interest in Toku- 
shima, with its long straight streets running in parallel 
lines for a mile or two. In the centre is a rocky mound, 
surrounded by a moat, and covered with noble trees, 
now the Park, formerly the Daimio's Castle, but now 
entirely dismantled. Overhanging the city is a pre- 
cipitous wooded hill, with a fine Shinto temple on its 
brow. To this we climbed — not a very arduous task, 
as steps have been cut in the side of the cliff, and 
were richly rewarded by a superb panorama. The 
mingling of sea and land, of mountain, forest, and 
plain, was an epitome of Japanese scenery. In front 
of us was spread out the city, beyond it the bay, 
covered with fishing-boats, into which two rivers flow 
from different points ; one of them, the Yoshi-no-gawa, 
navigable for many miles, while on both sides mountain 
ranges tower to some height, clad with dark pine forest, 
and their sides frequently pierced with the pale green 
patches which marked the openings of the rich culti- 
vated valleys. To the right, across the principal 
river, on the distant plain, a dark brown patch 
examined under a field glass would reveal a large 



254 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



town, in the centre of cultivated fields, and beyond 
that again a dim grey line of mountain heights. 

In the afternoon we called upon the native clergy- 
man, Mr. Terata, and his wife, who speak a little 
English. He is considered the most able of the 
native clergy and the most eloquent preacher, and is 
very obnoxious to the Buddhists. His life has often 
been threatened, but he seemed to be outliving the 
persecutions. 'In one church or other there are 




missionaky's house at tokushima. 



lectures or services every night, conducted by Mr. 
Buncombe, Mr. Terata, or a catechist. In the largest 
mission church which we visited was an outer porch, 
with pigeon-holes on either side from top to bottom, 
where the members of the congregation might deposit 
their shoes or sandals. There was also a stock of new 
fans, for the summer was coming on, and these are 
provided for the comfort of the worshippers. The 



SHIKOKU 



255 



Japanese are as ingenious and enterprising in adver- 
tising as any pushing tradesman at home. At a 
church council meeting a member of the congregation 
offered to present 200 fans as a gift. He is a photo- 
grapher, and produced a sample of his fans, but one 
side was covered with an elaborate advertisement of his 
establishment. As a contemplation of the attractions 
of his studio would hardly have conduced to the 




devotion of the worshippers, Mr. Buncombe suggested 
a more appropriate embellishment, and to the 
credit of the enterprising advertiser be it said, he 
adopted the design and supplied the fans. Most 
appropriate it was ; on one side was a coloured sketch 
of a stormy sea, with a dark, lowering sky, and the 
passage, ' Jesus Christ came into the world to save 
sinners.' On the reverse was depicted a brilliant 
sunlit sky, with a wooded islet in a calm sea, and 



256 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



storks flying overhead, and the text, ' God is a Spirit, 
and they that worship Him must worship Him in 
spirit and in truth.' 

In the evening, beginning at six o'clock, there 
was a grand shimbokkwai, or entertainment, held in 
the mission -room out of compliment to the visitors. 
It was rather a formidable affair, and as full of 
formalities as ceremonial tea. The room was abso- 
lutely devoid of furniture, and the guests as they 
arrived ranged themselves round the walls, sitting 
on their heels. Between forty and fifty came, 
all, of course, church members, the majority being 
men ; and the few women ranged themselves against 
the wall opposite to the men. I stood near the door, 
and was formally introduced to each visitor separately. 
I had consequently much practice in bowing twice to 
each one till my head touched my knees. The same 
ceremonial was repeated by each new-comer to the 
previous arrivals round the walls. I was much taken 
with the appearance of one member, a stout old 
farmer from the neighbourhood, the treasurer of the 
Nippon Sei-ko-kwai, or Japan church of the district. 
He arrived on horseback, and his horse, one of the 
few really thoroughbreds that I ever saw in the 
country, was turned out to graze in the adjoining 
yard. I found that I won the thorough approval of 
my friend by appreciating the points of his steed. 
When all had arrived, after a few minutes' solemn 
silence, Mr. Terata stood up and made a short speech,, 
and was followed by others, of the purport of all 
which I knew nothing. Mr. Buncombe gave them 



SHIKOKU 



257 



what I believe was supposed to be my History, after 
which I was expected duly to respond, and did so in 
English, one of the company volunteering to translate 
for me, sentence by sentence. This over, the church- 
wardens brought in saucer plates and paper napkins 
with pictures on them for each guest. Then tea was 
served, and a large paper bag of sweet cakes of all 
colours and shapes was set before each guest. Each 
took a little and wrapped up the remainder, first in 
paper and then in a handkerchief, to take away with 
them. It would have been a gross breach of etiquette 
if we had not done the same. To me the entertain- 
ment, with the conversation going on in an undertone 
among the guests, seemed rather like a Scotch funeral. 
At length, about nine o'clock, we made our round of 
bows to everyone, gave our apologies in correct style 
for going first, and with many a ' sayonara,' or good- 
bye, departed, though the entertainment continued 
till near midnight. To me a shimbokkwai is the 
acme of dulness, but then it must be remembered that 
I understood not a word, unlike my friends, who had 
a bright remark for everyone. 

One day was spent in a delightful expedition 
along the coast to Muya, a large straggling town 
twelve miles off, an out-station of the mission, and to 
the celebrated Straits of Naruto. A party of six, we 
started each in a kuruma drawn by two men, pulling 
tandem. It was a lovely ride. The road was level, 
on a narrow plain, with a wooded mountain rauge on 
our left and the islet-studded sea on the right. The 
plain itself was covered chiefly with barley, just 

s 



258 



KAMBLES IN JAPAN 



assuming its ripening golden-coloured hue, and many 
villages with picturesque little temples, Shinto and 
Buddhist, with avenues of trees leading up to them. 
May they soon become village churches ! We crossed 
five rivers, some of considerable width, and alive 
with boats. Two of them were spanned by pontoon 
bridges, one of which is two-thirds of a mile long, 
and is washed away every year, in consequence of 
which a toll of three sen (l£d.) is charged to all 
passengers. If kuruma-riding were not so solitary it 
would have been the perfection of an outing. 

After halting at the mission-house and being intro- 
duced to the catechist, who had been at college, and 
hoped soon to be ordained, we went on to a native 
inn fronting the sea, in a lovely cove with rocky 
islets crowding in front, surmounted by pine-trees. 
How these trees can live and get nourishment 
apparently on the top of a naked rock I do not 
pretend to understand. Their roots seem to bind 
the rocks and penetrate to the water's edge. After 
dining Japanese fashion on the floor, we crossed a 
creek in a boat, when most of the party landed and 
had a three-miles walk to Naruto. As we walked 
along the strand, strewn with shells, many of them 
most gorgeous olives, cowries, and cones, I could have 
wished for a long day, simply to explore these sands. 
It was a lively scene. Every three hundred yards 
fishermen with their boats were hauling in their nets, 
and scores of women and children in wild excitement 
were tugging at them and seizing the struggling fish. 
The line of nets taken out by each boat in a semicircle 



SHIKOKU 



261 



almost touched one another for miles along the coast, 
and though being constantly drawn in, very few were 
ever drawn empty. The inhabitants of the sea must 
indeed swarm among these islands. Nor were these 
draw-nets the only mode of gathering in the harvest 
of the sea. Many a small bamboo buoy marked the 
lobster-pots or eel-traps to arrest the unwary among 
these still waters, while in boats further out we could 
see the fishermen hauling in their small-meshed nets 
with great catches of sardines, and others patiently 
dropping their long lines with bait. No fish appears 
to be rejected as unclean, for two or three species of 
dog-fish seem very common, and are much appreciated 
in the market. The favourite fish is one called tai, a 
species of serranus, or sea-perch. So much is it 
appreciated that the proverb has arisen, ' Tai, even if 
it is bad, still it is tai.' 

At the further end of this little bay a bold wooded 
bluff projects into the sea, to the summit of which 
was a well-trodden path. From the platform at the 
top, disfigured by the papers of Japanese picnic 
parties, we had a lovely view of the opening of the 
Inland Sea and its countless islets. Descending on 
the other side, after gathering a dozen species of 
ferns I had never before seen, we found ourselves at 
Naruto, one of the lions of Japan. Here the tide 
coming up the Inland Sea meets the tide from the 
north. It must be remembered that the island of 
Awaji lies right across a wide bay of this sea from 
the main island to the northern point of Shikoku, 
leaving a channel of considerable width to the north- 



262 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



ward, which is the commercial route to Kobe and 
Osaka ; and more than thirty miles south of it, at the 
other extremity of Awaji, is the narrow channel of 
Naruto, interrupted by several islets, and therefore 
of little commercial importance. Its narrowest part 
is about a mile and a quarter wide, but a rocky 
island divides the strait into what are called the 
Greater and Lesser Naruto, the Greater Naruto being 
on the Shikoku side. We must remember that the 
tidal wave, rolling from west to east, strikes the north 
and south entrances of the Inland Sea almost simul- 
taneously ; but Naruto being near the northern 
opening, the tidal wave reaches this narrow channel 
from the north long before the arrival of the southern 
wave. The consequence is that at high water from 
the north, the sea is twelve feet higher on the 
northern side of the channel than it is on the inside, 
by a sort of bore being arrested here, but at low 
water the conditions are reversed, and the tidal 
wave having now come up from the south, the water 
north of the strait is twelve feet lower at an 
ordinary spring tide. The consequence is that there 
is literally a waterfall across the sea, excepting 
for a few minutes at mid-tide, when it is level. 
We w T ere fortunate enough to arrive just at high 
water. A small reef only tw T o or three feet above 
high water-mark runs out into the sea exactly 
in a line with the waterfall. We could easily walk 
out on to it, and there, standing on a flat rock at the 
extremity, the sea on our right hand was several feet 
higher than on our left, and the line in front of us 



SHIKOKU 



265 



was an even cascade more than a mile long, and as 
we watched it the waterfall gradually diminished in 
height. We went on shore, and after spending an 
hour or two botanising in the woods, returned to our 
post of observation to find the cascade barely more 
than a foot in height. Large shipping dare not risk 
this dangerous passage, but lighter craft can easily 
shoot the falls either way. We watched two junks 
trying it. They were gradually drawn faster and 
faster, as the current bore them down, till at last they 
ducked to it, seemed to take a header, and instantly 
come up again, and were then swept down stream at 
a tremendous rate. I have shot the rapids in the St. 
Lawrence, but none of them were like this. Unfortu- 
nately time did not permit us to remain to see the 
water perfectly even, as it is for a few minutes before it 
begins to rise on the other side. As it was, it was far 
into the night before we reached Tokushima again. 

I left the island of Shikoku with the conviction 
that there is no part of the Japanese empire which 
would so well repay a leisurely exploration of a few 
weeks as would Shikoku. Though the mountain 
ranges are far inferior in elevation to those of the main- 
land, yet they are more densely and uniformly wooded. 
The population of the island, although reaching 
4,000,000, is not so evenly dispersed as elsewhere, 
and consequently the extent of primeval forest is 
much greater. Game, and especially deer, must be 
very plentiful, judging by the abundance of heads and 
horns to be seen everywhere, though I only noticed 
one species, Cervus sika, or one closely allied to it. 



2G6 



CHAPTER IX 

THE ISLAND OF KIUSHIU 

Very different from our passage-boat to Tokushima 
was the sumptuous passenger steamer on which, a 
few days after our return from Shikoku, we embarked 
to pass again down the lovely Inland Sea, up which I 
had sailed a few weeks before. Our object was to 
visit the northern and central portions of the island 
of Kiushiu. By a most convenient arrangement the 
passengers were expected to be all on board the 
Saikyo Maru in the evening, so that we could 
loose from our moorings at daybreak, and lost none 
of the scenery. In the most perfect of weather we 
steamed down the Inland Sea, amidst a prospect 
simply peerless for calm, rich, quiet beauty. All 
that sunlight, a silver sea, countless islets on both 
sides, mountains clad with timber from the shore to 
their summits, villages in rapid succession, some 
half buried in woods, others fringing the shore, in- 
numerable fishing-boats and junks, amidst which the 
steamer carefully threads her way — all that these can 
give of beauty are here. Not majestic or grand, but 
delicately, gracefully, sweetly beautiful. 

We were reminded that sometimes there is a 
reverse to the medal, when during the afternoon we 



THE ISLAND OF KIUSHIU 2G7 

passed the wreck of a large English steamer, which 
had gone ashore on an islet eight days ago, and was 
now lying on her side, a hopeless wreck, since there 
was no available machinery within reach to raise her. 
Amongst our fellow-passengers was the ubiquitous 
Lloyd's agent, whom we dropped in a gig on his 
mission to look after the salvage, and many were the 
condolences he received on his departure for the 
Eobinson Crusoe's island, where he would probably 
have to remain a fortnight alone amongst the fisher- 
men. He was, however, well furnished with provi- 
sions, and light literature for solitary hours was 
showered upon him as he left the vessel. 

The sun did not set until we had reached 
that part of the Inland Sea the prospect of which 
I had enjoyed in daylight on my former voyage. 
We were due at the Straits of Shimanoseki in the 
early morning hours, and here the steamer was 
to drop anchor until daylight, this being her only 
point of call on her way to Shanghai. The night- 
was too bright to allow me to leave the deck, where 
I could mark the clear dark outline of mountains and 
islands over the phosphorescent sea, and that with 
most agreeable companions. The captain, a cultured 
American, who had kept his eyes open all over 
the world, and the chief engineer, an observant 
Scotchman, who had spent years in Yezo as his 
headquarters, and took a deep interest in the Ainu 
aborigines, kept the watch. The engineer was a 
devoted admirer of Mr. Batchelor, the Church 
Missionary Society missionary to the Ainu in Yezo, 



268 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



and it was refreshing to hear his high opinion of the 
missionary staff and of their work in Japan. 

About 2.30 a.m. we anchored in the narrow strait 
of Shimanoseki, which locks the south-west entrance 
of the Inland Sea. To the north, on the main island, 
is Bakan, well defended by earthworks, and Moji, our 
point of departure in Kiushiu, on the other side. 
We remained on board till dawn, when we were 
supplied with coffee and landed in the ship's boat at 
Moji. A portion of the North Kiushiu Bail way had 
just been opened, but the station was not yet com- 
pleted ; and finding ourselves an hour before the 
time of starting, we deposited our luggage on the 
planks and set out to explore the village in search 
of food, not very successfully. A journey of three 
hours through a rich undulating country brought us 
to Hakata. The line generally skirted the seashore. 

"We passed Kokura, a bustling seaport garrison 
town, and after that a number of collieries, recently 
opened, for this is the northern extension of the great 
Kiushiu coal-field, which extends eighty miles south- 
ward. A Japanese company is making arrangements 
for an enormous development of these coal-mines, 
which have hitherto been chiefly worked only by 
drifts. The upper seam alone has as yet been worked 
at all, but shafts have here been sunk, and several 
lower seams have been reached, yielding steam coal 
of the best quality. The Japanese fully expect to 
monopolize the coal trade of the Eastern Pacific, as 
the seams can be worked close to some of the best 
harbours, whilst the abundance of labour and its low 



THE ISLAND OF KIUSHITJ 



269 



price will enable them to compete successfully, not 
only with England, but with Vancouver. As yet 
coal hardly can be considered an article of household 
consumption in Japan, its home use being entirely 
confined to manufactures. The natives as yet show 
no disposition to apply it to domestic purposes, and 
prefer the more costly wood charcoal, which is a much 
less dangerous fuel in their inflammable wooden 
houses, while their paper walls and many chinks 
remove all danger of asphyxia. Still, it is to be 
hoped that mineral coal will be adopted for domestic 
purposes before the forests of the country, to which it 
owes so much, not only of its beauty, but its fer- 
tility, be too much depleted. To this last-mentioned 
danger, however, the enlightened government seems 
to be already alive, and sets an example which we 
might well follow at home, by locking the door before 
the steed is stolen. In India we have been barely in 
time to arrest the mischief which the denudation of 
timber has already caused in the desolation of more 
than one of the West Indian Islands, and which there 
are ominous signs may ere long overtake great parts 
of the North American continent. In Japan the 
government is following the German method of 
systematic replanting. 

We left the railway at Hakata, a large town sepa- 
rated from Fukuoka, our destination, only by the 
Nakagawa or Middle Eiver, spanned by bridges. 
We rode through both towns to the hospitable house 
of our host, Mr. Hind, who, with Mr. Hutchinson, 
represents the Church Missionary Society in this great 



270 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



town and district. Fukuoka itself has a population 
of 53,000, and is a military centre, as in case of war, 
whether with China or Eussia, the Straits of Shima- 
noseki would be a vital point either to hold or to 
attack. The far-seeing policy of the government has 
massed, in the different old castles and barracks 
within striking distance of the Straits, a number of 
skeleton corps which can easily be filled up. Fukuoka, 
though not much talked of, contains really many 
objects of interest. Very soon after our arrival Mr. 
Hind took us to the top of a hill at the extremity of 
the city, whence we had a commanding view of the 
bay and of the crescent-shaped city fringing it for 
four miles. The sea with its boats and shipping 
looked almost as populous as the land. Though 
flourishing and beautifully clean, the streets are 
rather too modern to be very attractive, excepting 
for their shops, which are well supplied, and in which 
I was able to pick up some interesting genuine old 
bronzes. 

The palace and grounds of the old Daimios skirt 
the further side of the city, and contain many objects 
of interest. The public park, which is formed 
out of a part of the ancient Daimios' domain, is 
studded with noble pine-trees, extending to the shore. 
Adjoining it is the mausoleum of the old Princes of 
Chikusen, quite unique in Japan, and unlike anything 
I ever saw elsewhere. Like the park, it is full of 
magnificent pine-trees, towering above the maples 
and other trees, which they overshadow. Among 
these forming a labyrinth are dropped the megalithic 



THE ISLAND OF KIUSHIU 



271 



monuments of the family, sometimes placed on arti- 
ficial mounds, sometimes encircled with evergreen- 
trees, and sometimes on the summit of a taller mound 
reached by a flight of steps. The tombs of the 
male members of the family have square shafts on 
circular bases, and are of great size and covered with 
old Chinese characters. Those of the females have 
circular shafts. 

This family, one of the most powerful in 
former times, next to the Shogun, has played a 
conspicuous part in the history of Japan. They were 
the leaders of the Christian faction in the time of 
Spanish influence. The Daimio Kuroda Nagamasa, 
in a.d. 1623, is frequently mentioned in the Jesuit 
chronicles. The inscription on his tomb is very long, 
and the tomb itself consists of three truncated columns 
placed one above the other, each on a circular base. 
A massive pagoda roof shelters it, giving it very 
much the appearance of a temple. I much regretted 
I could not read the inscription, nor ascertain what 
his Buddhist descendants have said about his Christ- 
ianity. The grounds are kept strictly private, and 
are in beautiful order. We were only admitted by 
special favour, and enjoyed wandering in the maze of 
thickets till sunset. The family is one of the few who 
have retained considerable political influence in new 
Japan, and the last Daimio of the Kuroda family has 
been created an hereditary marquis. His eldest son 
is a graduate of Oxford, but, instead of following the 
traditions of the family history, is a prominent anti- 
foreigner and anti- Christian. 



272 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



I cannot leave Fukuoka without a word on the 
infant church in that district, where we spent two 
Sundays, and on the second had the almost unique 
privilege of assisting in the formal consecration of a 
native church, built almost entirely by the people. 
1 was especially struck by the two catechists whom I 
met, and one of whom has been since ordained. His 
history is interesting. By birth a gentleman, he was 
originally a Samurai or retainer of the Satsuma clan. 
After the abolition of the feudal system, he received 
as compensation a sum of about $400. He was then 
a schoolmaster. Hearing something of Christianity, 
he became so much interested in it that he resigned 
his post and went with his family to Nagasaki, where 
he sought instruction from Archdeacon Maundrell, 
and was ultimately baptized. He then entered the 
little college there, at his own charges, to be trained 
as a catechist. He never said a word about his means, 
but lived on his capital till it was exhausted, and it 
was only when he was utterly penniless that the fact 
came out. He has proved himself an admirable man, 
and it was understood that he was to be ordained as 
soon as the congregation were able to guarantee their 
part of his stipend. 

The other catechist, who works the neighbouring 
out-stations, was a bank clerk. Having accidentally 
heard a catechist, he was led to seek further instruc- 
tion, and on his baptism was dismissed from the bank 
for having become a Christian. He was in absolute 
destitution for a time, but refused all help from 
Christian friends, lest it should be said he had gone 



THE ISLAND OF KIUSHIU 



273 



over for what he could get. He was reduced to 
support his family by cleaning out and taking care 
of the government schools. Mr. Hutchinson, however, 
soon found out his position, and, as he was a man of 
education and a gentleman, was able at once to 
employ him as a catechist, in which post he is in- 
valuable. It is interesting to know that the manager 
of the bank where he once was is now a trustee and 
churchwarden of the native church. 

Another case worth mentioning is that of Mr. 
Hutchinson's cook. He was a strong Buddhist, and 
was keeper of the Sailors' Home at Nagasaki. He 
was led to think that there must be something in 
Christianity by noticing the lives of some of the 
sailors there, whom he observed to gather in a corner 
for reading and prayer. He argued there must be 
something in this that made these men so different 
from the others, and therefore, to get instruction, 
came and offered himself to Mr. Hutchinson as his 
servant, and insisted upon accompanying him when 
he moved from Nagasaki. He has been the means 
of bringing all his kinsfolk into the Christian 
fold. 

I was also introduced to the oldest Christian in the 
congregation, and one of the most earnest. He is a 
blind man, who gets his living by hawking halfpenny 
newspapers in the street. He is called the father of 
the new church, because about two years ago he said 
at a prayer meeting : ' We ought not to be content 
to worship in a hired house ; we ought to build our- 
selves a church. I will undertake to give $30 in two 

T 



274 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



years for the purpose. What will others give ? ' 
This was indeed an enormous sum in a country where 
a working man earns $3 a month. A shopkeeper 
exclaimed: 'If he can give $30, I must give $50 
and others followed suit. So $800 was raised, and 
the church was built. 

We were at the last service held in the old 
mission-room — a hired house of two stories, the lower 
of which, open to the street, was devoted to preaching 
to the heathen, and for holding various inquirers' 
meetings, while the upper chamber was the church 
in which Christians met for worship. It might 
possibly hold a hundred people seated close together 
on the floor. I found the crowd and heat over- 
powering, and fear I did not set an example of 
attention, but I may be excused. I wonder if my 
reader ever tried to listen to an unknown tongue 
for two hours while sitting on the floor in a cramped 
posture. If so, I am sure I shall be forgiven. 

The following Sunday was a day much to be 
remembered in the history of the infant church of 
Kiushiu. Bishop Bickersteth had arrived the previous 
evening for the consecration of the new church, 
which by working night and day was completed — a 
feat that seemed hopeless a few days before. The 
matting was all down, the seats up (for they deter- 
mined to have seats in their new church, a foreign 
fashion which is creeping in), the windows were all 
in, as the procession, consisting of the church com- 
mittee, catechists from town and country, three clergy 
and the bishop, entered and walked up the church. 



THE ISLAND OF KIUSHIU 



275 



There was a crowd, as there would be elsewhere on 
such an occasion. Many non-Christians were present, 
among them several officials from the Kencho (govern- 
ment offices), and some leading merchants. The men 
were on one side, the women on the other, but soon 
the men overflowed into the ladies' seats. Almost all 
the men were got up in European fashion, frock coats 
predominating ; but I was glad to notice that there 
was not a sins;le female, whether of higher or lower 
rank, in Western costume ; nor did I ever during my 
wanderings meet a woman in any but the national 
dress. We can only hope that, warned by the mean 
appearance of the other sex in the unbecoming habili- 
ments that it is fashionable to adopt, the ladies' 
style will never change. 

The ceremonial seemed to be exactly as at home : 
the petition for consecration, the lawyer's part, and 
the handing and signing of title and trust deeds, were 
all duly performed at the communion table. After 
the consecration was a confirmation of eight adult 
men and three women converts, and the Holy Com- 
munion, with sixty-four communicants besides the 
clergy. The people are fond of sermons, and at the 
evening service after the bishop's address and con- 
firmation there were two sermons to a crowded 
congregation, preached by catechists, the second being 
of portentous length from a young man gifted with 
Hibernian eloquence and more than Hibernian 
vehemence. 

"While speaking of the consecration, I forgot to 
mention the ceremonial connected with the building, 

T 2 



276 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



which is exactly the reverse of the Western custom. 
We lay foundation stones. In this country, on the 
contrary, buildings are always begun by setting up 
the roof-tree and then completing the whole roof 
supported by a wooden pillar at each angle, from 
which they build the wooden walls downwards, 
having a shelter under which to work. As soon as 
the ridge of the roof is fixed, and before the rafters 
have been attached to it, in the centre of the beam a 
hole is cut, in which the bottle of documents and coins 
are deposited with as much ceremony as amongst 
ourselves. When I first noticed this amusing contrast 
to our ancient Western custom, I was naturally led to 
associate it with the fact that no trace whatever of 
Freemasonry has been found in Japan, where the 
building material being exclusively wood and not 
stone, there was no scope for those operative masonic 
traditions which are so interwoven with speculative 
Freemasonry. 

The situation of the church is certainly the 
choicest in Fukuoka, adjoining the large Post Office 
buildings, facing the river, with the wide roadway 
of the quay in front, lined with barges and sampans, 
and close to the bridge which unites the two towns. 
The porch has granite pillars, and is at the south- 
west angle of the building, surmounted, as are also 
the east and west gables, with the cross in a circle. 
The fine granite font was the gift of two members of 
the congregation. 

Early on the Monday morning we proceeded on 
our way by rail to the station for Dazaifu, one of 



THE ISLAND OF KIUSHIU 



277 



the interesting historical sites in the island. Having 
deposited our luggage, we took kurumas across the 
plain to the foot of the hills where Dazaifu is situated, 
a most interesting old place, the seat of the govern- 
ment of Kiushiu two thousand years ago and more. 
The island used to be a dependency, only nominally 
subject to the Mikado, who appointed the governor- 
general, and was not really incorporated in the 
empire until a.d. 1338. The temples here are the 
most ancient in Japan. One of them is dedicated to 
Tenjin (i.e., heaven man), the name under which a 
great ruler and scholar, Sugawara, has been deified. 
In his day, 900 a.d., the governorship of Kiushiu was 
looked upon as a banishment and disgrace. It was 
the post to which illustrious or powerful men who 
might have offended the Mikado were relegated. 
Tenjin is worshipped as the god of caligraphy. In 
front of the temples dedicated to his honour is gener- 
ally placed the figure of a recumbent cow, in accord- 
ance with the tradition that, having no horses in his 
exile, he used to ride about on a cow. His temple at 
Dazaifu is approached by a long avenue and a torii 
(i.e., gateway) of bronze, of a size such as I saw 
nowhere else. The avenue was flanked by splendid 
bronze statues of dragons, lions and cows, larger than 
life-size, and some of the finest camphor-trees I ever 
saw. 

The temple itself was more striking from the 
evidences of its antiquity than its beauty, and in the 
courtyard in front of it were again many bronze 
figures of cows, lions and owls. The priests were 



278 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



much, pleased for a fee to show us the relics and 
treasures of this temple, the swords of many historical 
characters by famous makers, some a thousand years 
old, manuscripts claiming to be fifteen hundred years 
old, the original holographs of one of the greatest poets 
of Japan, bronze statuettes of Confucius and his chief 
followers, brought from China in 630 A.D., and many 
choice specimens of ancient lacquer. In fact, the 
sacrarium of this temple was simply the treasure- 
house of an antiquarian and historical museum. 

We walked on a mile or so further to visit a still 
older temple, somewhat dilapidated, but with yet older 
relics than the other, amongst them the metal mirror 
of the first Emperor of Japan, B.C. ?, of unknown 
date, and some ancient lacquer work. It was an 
exercise of patience to wait for the exhibition of the 
historic swords, which had more wrappings and cases 
than the mummy of an Egyptian monarch. Seating 
himself on the ground after opening one coffer and 
then another, the priest would take out the long 
package, enfolded in marvellous wrappers of faded 
silk embroidery, tied with broad ribbons in knots 
which seemed to have some mystic meaning, and it 
was not until after some half-dozen of these covertures 
had been successively unfolded that the sword in its 
elaborately inlaid sheath was revealed. 

The temple of Kwannon, the goddess of mercy, not 
far off, was well worth a visit, as it also possesses a 
number of interesting relics. In the centre of the 
building is a colossal figure of Kwannon, with two 
other smaller yet colossal statues on either side, all 



THE ISLAND OF KIUSHIU 



279 



three gilt, or rather, if the priest's statement be true, 
covered with thin gold plates. If so, they must be 
of fabulous value. A walk of two miles more took 
us to the site of the old court-house and palace of 
Dazaifu. Little now remains of the old capital of the 
island except the granite bases of the columns of the 
building, and the colonnade leading to it, but its shape 
and outline can be clearly traced. It reminded us on 
approaching it of a Druidical circlet. 

We had a hurried walk down to the nearest 
village, where we were able to hire kurumas, and 
caught the last train towards Kumamoto, our bourne. 
The line was not yet opened, and the train deposited 
us fifteen miles short of our destination. When we 
reached the terminus — it could hardly be called a 
station — no kuruma man was willing to take us on, as 
it was too far and too late. However, we persuaded 
some at last to convey us at least to the first village. 
Here we were set down in the road in front of a 
tea-house, and certainly the poor fellows who had 
brought us deserved their fare, and were quite 
incapable of going further, for when we engaged 
them they were, so to speak, return empties, having 
done their day's work. There seemed no help for it, 
so we sat down on a mat in the tea-house, resigned, 
if necessary, to spend the night there, and made a 
meal as best we could of tea and sugared beans. At 
length two villagers, seeing the chances of a stiff fare, 
presented themselves and agreed to take us on. 

It was a pity to lose the rich scenery, but we had 
time before sunset to halt for a visit to the fine monu- 



280 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



ment erected on a mound of the battlefield where 
the Satsuma rebellion was finally crushed. This was, 
in fact, the Culloden of Japan, the last struggle 
of the clans and feudal independence against 
centralised government and the new regime. It 
had lasted for several years, and was finally crushed 
in 1877. 

Our friends Mr. and Mrs. Bran dram, of the Church 
Missionary Society at Kumamoto, had almost given 
us up in despair when at length our kuruma men 
found their house. We found, besides the family 
party, a young Japanese doctor who spoke English 
perfectly. By a strange coincidence this gentleman, 
who was a complete stranger passing through 
Kumamoto on his way to a distant town, had called 
on Mr. Brandram as a fellow-Christian. In the 
course of conversation, my daughter's name being 
mentioned, he said that he had been invited to my 
house in England and knew some of my friends. 
Not a little astonished was he when told that we 
were expected that very evening, and he agreed to 
stay to meet us. Strange that in this remote town 
in Japan three of us should meet who had never seen 
each other before, and yet had many common 
tangents — Dr. Saiki being an Edinburgh graduate 
well known to my friends, Mr. Brandram the curate 
of an old curate, and Mrs. Brandram the daughter of 
an old friend. 

Kumamoto, with its population of 60,000, is the 
most important military centre in Kiushiu. This it 
owes chiefly to the very commanding position of its 



THE ISLAND OF KIUSHIU 



283 



ancient fortress, which is equally important under the 
conditions of modern warfare. Like the Castle of 
Nagoya, it has happily escaped the ravages of the 
iconoclastic fever of twenty years ago, and next to it 
is perhaps the finest relic of the feudal times. I may 
best describe it as an inland Gibraltar, standing on a 
rock, precipitous and unassailable on three sides, and 
commanding not only the whole town beneath, but the 
surrounding country. It is now to Kiushiu what 
Osaka is to the main island, the artillery depot of the 
country, and admission to the fortress is strictly 
forbidden except under special circumstances. I was 
fortunate enough to see the horse artillery practice on 
a field day ; and although the horses did not seem 
comparable in breeding to our own, yet I am quite 
sure that the rapidity with which the evolutions were 
gone through, the promptitude with which the guns 
were limbered and unlimbered, would not have 
discredited the best European troops. 

This wonderful castle was built by the Kato, 
conqueror of Korea, nearly four hundred years ago, 
but is chiefly celebrated now for the spirited defence 
which its small garrison made in 1877 against the 
Satsuma insurgents, led by their hero Saigo. He was 
the champion of the old system, and though he had 
been foremost in assisting to abolish the Shogunate 
and draw forth the Mikado into real authority, yet he 
was determinately opposed to all the modern innova- 
tions, more perhaps to the abolition of feudalism than 
to the recognition of foreigners. He had rallied about 
twenty thousand young Samurai of the class to whom 



284 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



the new institutions meant ruin, and so unprepared 
were the central authorities then for resistance, that, 
probably, had he marched straight to Tokio, he would 
have carried all before him. His one and fatal 
mistake was that, instead of being content with 
masking Kumamoto, he wasted weeks in attempting 
to reduce it by siege, and thus gave the government 
time to collect their forces at Fukuoka. The siege 
being raised, the gallant Saigo, after several struggles 
being finally defeated, when all was lost at Kagoshima, 
got a friend to decapitate him, and thus terminated 
the last effort of old Japan. 

The mausoleum of the old Daimios is full of 
interest, though on a much smaller scale than the 
one at Fukuoka. One of the Daimios in a.d. 1600 
was a well-known Christian, but his descendants have 
given him a Buddhist epitaph on his tomb. The 
gardens of this old family are now the public park 
of the place, quaint and artificial, with lakes and 
mounds, and the azaleas just past their full beauty. 
The town has one feature not common in Japan, that 
all the streets are more like boulevards, from the rows 
of trees planted down them. Almost the whole city 
having been burnt at the time of the siege, oppor- 
tunity was taken to treat the place as was old 
London after its great fire. Kumamoto is an im- 
portant educational centre, with a large government 
college and very extensive buildings. The Professor 
of English, a Canadian fellow-countryman, who has 
since left, most kindly showed us over everything, 
and especially the museum, where I picked up some 



THE ISLAND OF KIUSHIU 



285 



information, though I was sorry to find that the 
authorities had not yet learned the importance of 
noting the localities of their specimens. 

One evening during our stay we attended a 
shimbokkwai given in the town hall, and attended by 
nearly three hundred Christians, in honour of a 
native catechist of the Church Missionary Society, 
who was leaving on account of health. The Church 
Missionary Society is by no means the only mission 
in this great city, and the interesting feature about 
the affair is that it was got up . by the Christians of 
other denominations as a brotherly farewell. 



286 



CHAPTER X 

ASO SAN AND THE GEYSERS OF YUNOTAN 

From Kumamoto we made an intensely interesting 
two days' excursion to Aso San, an active volcano, 
5,900 feet above the sea, almost exactly in the 
centre of the island. Aso San is the second or 
third in importance of the fifty-one volcanoes which 
are reckoned in the country, and it has, moreover, 
many satellites in the form of sulphur jets, hot 
springs, and magnificent geysers. It is never at rest, 
though at present it was not ejecting anything beyond 
sulphur and smoke. The last eruption of consequence 
was in February, 1884, when there was no stream of 
lava, but showers of ashes fell, and destroyed the crops 
within a radius of thirty miles, and at Kumamoto the 
darkness continued for three days. It was also active, 
but not to the same extent, in 1889, simultaneously 
with the Kumamoto earthquake. 

We organised a party of six for the expedition, three 
ladies, Mr. Lang, of the Church Missionary Society, and 
Mr. Brandram's Japanese servant, who, knowing the 
district well, proved himself an invaluable dragoman. 
After an early start we rode for five hours in kuru- 
mas, each in solitary state, choosing for the sake of 
the scenery, in preference to the new and lower road, 
the old Ozu road, under an avenue of pine-trees 300 



ASO SAN AND THE GEYSERS OF YUNOTAN 287 

years old. Our journey was through a rich cultivated 
country, gently rising, the pine and cryptomeria 
avenues giving grateful shade, every now and then 
interrupted by picturesque villages, with the women 
busily threshing wheat and barley by the roadside 
with flails on great mats, the men toiling in the paddy 
fields, whence the barley had been cleared. After 
this, the earliest harvest of the year, not a moment is 
lost ; the water is turned in by the little channels 
which intersect the plain in every direction, and form 
a perfect network of parallelograms, fed by the 
mountain rills, and led in this direction or in that 
with perfect docility, as the little mud walls of the 
channel are opened or closed. Here the parties of 
husbandmen in long rows were busy dibbling in the 
young rice plants in the black semi-fluid mud. In 
other fields men were busily pulling up by the roots 
the long rows of wheat plants, which had all been 
drilled in, for the Japanese agriculturist would scorn 
the slovenly and wasteful method of sowing broadcast, 
and as the wheat was uprooted, long rows of indigo or 
lentils sown between the drills were briskly shooting 
up, now that they had space and light for growth. 
The plain on either side stretched far as the eye could 
reach, dotted all over with labourers in their large 
bamboo umbrella hats, a perfect picture of agri- 
cultural peace and prosperity. 

We gradually approached what seemed a mighty 
convex wall of mountain, in which just before us a 
solitary deep gap was cleft, up to which a mighty 
causeway led by a gentle slope from the plain. Here 



288 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



at a tea-house we dismissed our kuruma men, and 
secured two porters for our hand luggage. We were 
gradually entering the one gap in the great circular 
crater of the most stupendous primeval volcano exist- 
ing in the world. The walls up to which we looked 
are the rim of an irregular circumference of forty 
miles, averaging 800 feet in height, and enclosing a 
plain of unsurpassed fertility, embracing over a 
hundred agricultural villages. The present active 
peak is within the outer enclosing rim, on the further 
side from that by which we ascended. As we neared 
the opening in the enclosing ridge, we could see how, 
in some inconceivably distant geological epoch, the 
contents of that mighty cauldron have burst through 
this fissure, and spread their molten torrents over 
the vast plain below, to form in after ages by their 
decomposition the rich black soil of the plains of Higo. 

It is a delicious climb, rough though it be under 
foot ; every road, lane, and path is now an avenue of 
the lovely wax-tree, Rhus succedanea, a beautiful, 
though not a lofty, tree, with wide-spreading branches, 
and foliage in form and hue something between the 
ash and the walnut, and in autumn turning to the 
most exquisite red. From its berries is extracted 
vegetable wax, one of the most important products of 
Japan. It has exactly the perfume and appearance 
of beeswax, and makes very clean candles. Until 
the introduction of mineral oils from America, and 
more recently of the electric light, the country was 
entirely dependent on the illuminating power of the 
produce of the wax- tree. 



ASO SAN AND THE GEYSEES OF YUNOTAN 289 

I cannot describe the charm of the mountain path 
as we approached the crest. Waterfalls peeping 
amongst trees shooting out of cliffs ; deep glens below 
us ; festoons of wistaria bloom, painting with purple 
lines the fresh green foliage of the maples and other 
nameless trees overhead ; a new outline ; a new abyss 
revealed at every turn, till variety itself became 
monotonous. 

We climbed to the top of a ridge, and got our 
first view of the vast primeval crater. The rim 
is complete except at this point where the Shira- 
kawa (the one drainage of the whole basin) pours 
out over the bed of the once glowing lava streams. 
The diameter of this great crater varies from ten to 
fourteen miles, and the hundred villages boast of 
800 farms. Within this, but at the further side, 
is an inner crater of much later geologic date, rising 
to an elevation of 4,150 feet, enclosing an irregular 
plain, which is comparatively barren and waterless, 
and then at the further side of this is the inner- 
most, modern, and living volcano of Aso San. I 
have not seen the volcanoes of the Sandwich 
Islands, which evidently have points of resemblance 
with this, but it recalled most vividly the pheno- 
mena of the Island of Palma in the Canaries, with 
this difference, that the Caldera of Palma is only 
one-third its diameter, but five times its depth, being 
4,500 feet from the Pico di Muchacio to the bottom 
of the crater, which is equally celebrated for its 
extraordinary fertility, and has a gap through 
which the lava has flowed in such vast quantities 

u 



290 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



as to cause the well-known pear-shaped form of 
Palma. 

From our ridge we rapidly descended by a 
mountain path into a deep glen, from the bottom 
of which rises a column of sulphurous steam. Here 
are large public hot baths, with lodgings and tea- 
houses, the baths supplied by bamboo pipes from 
the boiling springs hard by. They are ingeniously 
constructed against the side of the hill, and are all 
open to the path, and both sexes of all ages were 
enjoying their public parboiling in common in perfect 
nudity. Just in front of us was a lovely view. 

Another deep glen, or rather chasm, joined the 
one we were following, and the cliffs facing us, several 
hundred feet high, and all but perpendicular, were 
clad with forest trees, clinging, one hardly can 
conceive how, to the face of the cliff. The dashing 
torrents were fringed with all sorts of ferns, 
conspicuous among them the giant Woodwardia 
japonica, dropping its fronds to the surface of the 
stream. We were all enchanted, but we had a 
walk of some hours before us. 

After another hour, arriving at a wayside tea- 
house, the man with the horses and our luggage 
declared that here we must stop for the night. 
I should have said before that when we discharged 
our kurumas, although one man could easily have 
carried all we had on his back, we engaged a 
horse, for which we were charged the enormous 
sum of forty sen, rather less than twenty pence ; 
and this agreed to, he must needs have a second 



ASO SAN AND THE GEYSERS OF YUNOTAN 291 

horse and a friend to accompany him, but as 
these were on a return journey, they need not 
be paid for. To have rested at this place would 
have meant to add another day to our journey and 
dislocate all our plans, but for some time we were 
much afraid the strike would have been successful. 
Every argument was used : we ought to have stayed 
at the hot baths we had passed ; everyone would 
be tired ; there would be no food at Tarutama, our 
proposed destination ; the distance yet to go was, 
according to their account, greater than when we 
had started in the morning ; and finally, as a 
clinching argument, there would be no policemen 
there to look at our passports ! At last the men 
were heard to say, ' There is no help for it. If 
we don't go on, things won't do/ and on we went. 
Oh, such shrubs ! Wistaria, deutzia, wiegelia, daphne 
of three or four sorts, wild roses of three species, 
honeysuckles of two, azaleas of all sorts, a shrub 
that looked like a white fuchsia, which I never saw 
before or since, and many others quite strange 
to us all. 

After a long climb we halted in a sort of 
Devonshire lane for afternoon tea and a rest, the 
ladies having brought all paraphernalia for tea- 
making, and a little rill supplying the water. More 
climbing, till about 6 p.m. we were brought up short 
by our narrowing valley becoming a gorge, and 
finally a cul-de-sac with a cliff some hundreds of 
feet high in front, covered with wood, and a cascade 
of hot water dashing down it. "We had arrived at 

u 2 



292 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



Tarutama. Under the cliff a long row of two-storied 
sheds crammed with people, a sort of square in front, 
two sides of which were formed by large open 
baths under roofs, but with no enclosing walls, fed 
by bamboo pipes, with the hot sulphurous water from 
the foot of the cascade providing a continuous 
stream through the fully tenanted baths. The place 
has great renown, especially for rheumatism. There 
were only two hundred people here now, but as 
summer approached they expected the number to 
rise to eight hundred. All the baths are free as 
well as public, and a great boon to the poor they 
must be. A very clean native hotel has lately 
been put up at the entrance to the place, and we 
soon arranged for supper, bed and breakfast at 
thirty sen, about a shilling a-piece. Mr. Lang and 
I had a large room downstairs, and the ladies two 
rooms upstairs, reached by a ladder from the kitchen. 
We should have liked a hot bath, but it was hopeless. 
Our landlord comforted us by telling us that there 
would not be many bathers in the early hours after 
midnight. Foreigners were evidently rare visitors 
here, and we were watched and followed by crowds 
in our every movement. As our room had no 
walls, privacy was impossible, but all was exquisitely 
clean, and the supper of rice and mushroom soup 
very good. 

Next morning I woke at four, a still, starlit night, 
and pushing the paper frame aside, went across to 
the nearest bath. There was only one occupant when 
I arrived, the water was as hot as I could bear it, but 



ASO SAN AND THE GEYSERS OF YUNOTAN 293 



I soon got acclimatized, and enjoyed my swim ex- 
ceedingly. On my return, I roused Mr. Lang, who 
followed my example, but had half-a-dozen com- 
panions. After a short doze under my futon again, 
the room was cleared for breakfast. The ladies had 
succeeded in having an apology for a tub upstairs, a 




COUNTRY PEOPLE CARRYING FIREWOOD. 



great concession to foreign prejudices. The baggage 
was all sent down with a man and horse to Tochi- 
no-ki, on the other route, where we had arranged 
before leaving Kumamoto that kurumas were to meet 
us, and with a guide carrying a lunch basket we 
started for another steep walk to the summit of Aso 
San. 



294 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



Our night's halt had been on the outside of the 
rim of the middle crater, which is about five miles 
across. We now soon lost the trees, and were on 
bare grassy hills until we reached the crest. Then 
a magnificent panorama of mountain ranges, one 
encircling the other, was spread before us. No agri- 
culture, only cattle and many horses and foals, and the 
cuckoo's note resounding all day. Two hours off on 
our left the rising column of smoke marked Aso San. 
The path was easy, not steep, and the turf pleasant 
walking. After four hours we were at the end of 
vegetation, the last flower being a lovely, pale-blue 
gentian in great abundance, and we were at the foot 
of the cone. Here was a little village with tea-houses. 
Depositing the luncheon basket, we set out for a half- 
hour's scramble over bare scoria and tufa to the edge 
of the living crater. It has a double rim ; a slight 
descent from the outer one leads to the very edge of 
the gulf, on which is perched a tiny shrine of Buddha. 
It was blowing a gale of wind — fortunately at our 
backs, otherwise we could not have ascended. I 
never saw a more wonderful sight than when I looked 
down that abyss. It is about 950 feet deep, and 
two-thirds of a mile in circumference. The roar was 
deafening, and the steam and smoke rose in thick 
clouds. Fortunately, being to windward, we could 
see the bottom, and the glowing red-hot tufa and 
sulphur, as fire and steam seemed to pour forth from 
the whole surface. Vesuvius and Etna, as I have 
seen them, are nothing in comparison with the weird 
Aso San. It is a scene for Dore to have painted. 



ASO SAN AND THE GEYSERS OF YUNOTAN 295 



There is one corner where men can get down to 
gather the sulphur, and one to whom we spoke had 
been down the day we were there. Every year some 
lose their lives in doing so, both by suffocation from 
the fumes, and from their sinking through the 
treacherous crust into the molten metal. We did 
not respond to the invitation to go down, which had 
to be made by signs, for the roar was too deafening 
for a word to be heard. 

We returned to the tea-house at the base of the 
cone for luncheon. Our guide utilized the opportunity 
for setting forth Christianity to a score of attentive 
listeners. One opponent vehemently urged as an 
objection that each nation ought to be independent, 
and that Japan as a great nation should have a god to 
herself, and not go to foreign gods. One of the ladies 
had brought a tin of preserved peaches and begged 
the landlord's acceptance of a plate of them. He 
lifted the plate to his head in token of acceptance, 
and then with chopsticks cleverly cut the peaches into 
small morsels, and going round the crowd, with the 
chopsticks put a bit into the mouth of each bystander. 

W e took an entirely different route on our return, 
in order to visit the geysers of Yunotan. After 
crossing the rim of the middle crater over grassy 
downs, and then descending into a lovely valley, 
wooded in many places, a two hours' walk brought 
us to a deep gorge, from which arose clouds of smoke, 
or rather steam. Here was another village of baths, 
tea-houses, and lodging-sheds. The hot, steaming 
baths, into which streams were poured by bamboo 



296 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



tubes from the geysers, were as public and as fre- 
quented as those we had seen before. Two or three 
hundred yards above a cluster of geysers poured forth 
their jets with a deafening roar. The largest sent up 
a pillar of boiling water and mud to a height of 
twenty feet. Every few seconds the column seemed 
to drop two or three feet, and then immediately to 
rise again. A number of stones of various sizes were 
shot up with the mud, and often, but not always, 
dropped outside. Three or four other geysers a little 
higher up the valley shot up columns quite as large 
in volume, but only to about half the height. The 
place seems very little known, and is quite retired 
from any ordinary thoroughfare, but is very popular 
as a health resort for the poor. At these baths, as 
at those we visited on the previous day, the sheds, 
for they are really nothing better, where the visitors 
are sheltered at night are maintained by the local 
authorities, and the lodging as well as the baths are 
free. They are indeed a great boon to the poor, for 
rheumatism in all its forms is exceptionally prevalent 
in Japan, and no wonder, when we see the poor 
labourers of both sexes working all day knee deep 
in the mud and water of the paddy fields. We 
were assured that they rarely fail of effecting a cure, 
and in the very worst cases give considerable relief. 
Some patients would sit in the water at a tempera- 
ture of 100° F. for six hours at a time. The water 
must be very strongly impregnated with sulphur, as 
it forms a deep incrustation all round the geysers. 
Thence we had a very long trudge through a lovely 



ASO SAN AND THE GEYSERS OF YUNOTAN 297 



wooded valley to Tochinoki, where the road com- 
mences, and we were to find our kurumas. The 
warm spring weather had evoked abundant insect 
life, and I added, in these two days, many choice 
specimens of butterflies to my collection. We were 
again in the breach through which the lava in old 
geologic time had broken through the crater, a little 
to the north of the path by which we had entered, 
and we looked through it on to the vast plain stretch- 
ing down to the sea, with Kumamoto at its further 
end. The sun had set, and it was near eight p.m. 
when, refreshed by tea, we started for our seventeen 
miles' ride to the city. Bravely did the tough little 
kuruma men trot along, and with only one halt to 
allow them to eat their rice and rest a little, we 
reached our hospitable friends' house at twenty 
minutes before midnight. 

The next day we turned our faces north again, 
having each a kuruma with two men, for we had 
sixteen miles, nearly all uphill, before we should 
reach the railway terminus to catch the train. When 
some five miles from our destination the tyre came 
off one of my wheels. The mishap could not be 
repaired on the spot, and we could only push on on 
foot as quickly as possible to the next village, our 
baggage being on the remaining kuruma. Happily 
there is no difficulty in finding vehicles even in the 
most out-of-the-way places, and we reached the 
terminus in time. 

We left the train again at Kurume, our object 
being to visit the interesting Christian village of 



298 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



Oyamada. Kurume, though, a town of 35,000 
inhabitants, seems to consist of one endless street, 
running up towards the hills ; but at last, like Harley 
Street, it came to an end, and at a tea-house on the 
edge of the country we enjoyed a delicious native 
dinner of shrimps, a kind of whitebait, mushroom 
soup, eggs, and rice. I felt quite satisfied with my 
management of chopsticks, when the crowd of boys 
who were watching us did not see anything to 
laugh at. 

Thence we ran along the banks of a river, fringed 
with ferns and shaded by wax-trees, till we reached 
an avenue at Korasan, where is a fine Shinto temple 
on the wooded hill, with a grand view. We had 
sent our wheels round to meet us at the base of the 
hill on the other side. At a tea-house in the temple 
grounds we saw the whole process of prepariug green 
tea for home consumption. The leaves, brought in 
in large baskets, are steamed in a perforated pan 
over a boiler on a charcoal fire. They are then 
spread out on bamboo mats in the sun to dry, but 
before they become crisp are roughly rolled in the 
palms of the hand by women. Then the drying is 
completed, and the leaves are ready for use. We 
were told that to make black tea for foreign use they 
bake the leaves after steaming. We drank some 
delicious fresh tea made from leaves which were on 
the bushes only a few days ago. 

Here our friend Mr. Hutchinson, from Fukuoka, 
met us, and at the foot of the hill we took 
ourselves to our kurumas, and were off for Oyamada. 



ASO SAN AND THE GEYSERS OF YUNOTAN 299 



We had a long two hours' ride, shaded by wax- trees 
as we skirted the range, when, in a village embosomed 
in trees, we suddenly turned up a steep hill in the 
narrowest of lanes, under deep shade. At an opening 
among the trees we got out, and in front of us was a 
pretty wooden church, with its solid roof and neat 
porch, in an enclosure ornamented after the fashion 
of the country with large boulders, brought and 
arranged with no slight labour : and by its side a 
picturesque little parsonage of two stories, standing 
in its garden, very like a Swiss chalet. The 
church, which will hold three hundred, is tastefully 
furnished, and, like the parsonage, was built by the 
people themselves. The catechist, whose wife had 
been for ten years a pupil of Mrs. Goodall, a 
benevolent missionary at Nagasaki, and speaks 
English well, entertained us with tea and cakes. 
We then climbed by a narrow path to the house of 
the chief man of the village and the first Christian. 
Near his house was a natural platform, a little grassy 
knoll projecting from the hill-side, where the people 
often assemble to sing hymns. From this spot we 
had a striking view of the slopes and the village 
below. Every house is isolated, and the brown roofs 
peer here and there amongst a dense mass of foliage, 
the flat tops of the wax-trees. 

The story of this village is very interesting. Four 
years before my visit there was not a Christian in the 
place ; we were here in the centre of Xavier's labours. 
It is marvellous how, in spite of persecution and 
isolation, a tradition of Christianity had remained. 



300 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



In some of the villages the people had preserved a 
few leaves of old missals, some crosses and other 
Christian relics. These were kept buried in boxes 
under the floor in the centre room of a house, and 
once a year at dead of night, after the house had been 
carefully shut up, the relics were opened and shown, 
the sign of the cross made, and the children told it 
was the proscribed religion of their ancestors. But 
they knew nothing more. When the country was 
opened, and religion proclaimed free, some of these 
villages declared themselves Christian, and at once 
received the Eoman missionaries. 

The people of Oyamada noticed that the conduct 
and life of the inhabitants of one of these villages 
was far superior to that of the Buddhists, and came 
to the conclusion that it must be a good religion 
which produced such fruits. Some of them went to 
the government office at the neighbouring town 
of Kurume, and talked to the officials there of 
their intention of inquiring into Christianity. They 
replied to them : 6 If you want to be Christians, 
do not go to the old Christians, for they brought 
all the trouble to Japan many years ago by 
meddling in politics ; go to the new Christians, for 
they never interfere with Japanese matters of state.' 
They were also told that if they went to Nagasaki, 
they would hear all about Christianity ; so a depu- 
tation set out along with the head of the village on 
what was to them a very serious journey. Arrived 
at Nagasaki, they went to an inn, but the people 
there knew nothing about any Christians, when a 



ASO SAN AND THE GEYSERS OF YUNOTAN 301 

bystander said : ' I know all the foreigners, and will 
take you to them. But you don't know their ways ; 
you can do nothing with them unless you give them 
a dinner first. Give me $30, and I will provide the 
dinner, and make all right.' But they cautiously 
replied that they would wait and see the foreigners 
first. The man took them to the Church Missionary 
Society bookshop, and it turned out that all he knew 
of the matter was the existence of this shop. The 
colporteur sent them to Mr. Hutchinson, and they 
began by producing, in true Japanese fashion from 
handkerchiefs, two large tins of mutton, which they 
had brought as an introductory present. Mr. Hutch- 
inson heard their story, felt satisfied of their sincerity, 
and told them he would send them two teachers to 
instruct them in the religion of Jesus, but they must 
expect no money nor any worldly advantage. He sent 
Mr. Nakamura, the present catechist, and another. 

Some months afterwards he was summoned to 
examine their catechumens. He baptized seventy at 
the house of the head man whom we visited, and soon 
after twenty more whom he had put back for further 
instruction. There were now 140 well-instructed 
Christians there. Bishop Bickersteth afterwards 
visited them for confirmation ; and one man, who was 
not able to be present, afterwards walked fifty miles 
to receive the rite at Fukuoka. They maintain a 
Christian school. Formerly near the spot where the 
church has been built were two trees which were 
considered sacred, and between them hung the sacred 
straw rope connected with Shinto worship. When 



302 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



two-thirds of the villagers had become Christians, the 
sons of the head man boldly cut down the sacred trees 
in the middle of the night, and they have been used 
to form the roof-tree of the church, while a sacred 
stone with an inscription has been inverted and made 
the threshold of the church. 

The village was not without its troubles. 
The Japanese are extremely fond of lawsuits, and 
it is commonly said that each village considera 
it an honourable distinction to have been involved 
in a suit with her neighbours. Oyamada has 
been no exception. There was a bit of common 
land claimed both by it and by a neighbouring 
village. Their old maps differed from those of their 
neighbours, and both were of great antiquity. They 
had had a lawsuit for some years about it, which was 
carried through four courts, till at last, in the High 
Court of Tokio, they lost it. The bit of land was 
worth about $1000, and the costs they had to pay 
came to $8000, so Chancery suits and law expenses 
exist elsewhere than in England. Keluctantly we bid 
good-bye to Oyamada, and went down the hill to our 
kurumas. 

In passing through Kurume I noticed the shop of 
a knife-handle manufacturer. He had an immense 
stock of horns and skins of the deer of the country 
( Cervus sika), which he told me was very common, of 
which I secured specimens. He informed me that 
there was another deer to be found in Kiushiu, much 
rarer, but of which he had at present no specimens. 
After an unsuccessful hunt after bronzes and lacquer, 



ASO SAN AND THE GEYSERS OF YUNOTAN 303 



we resumed our journey by train, and reached Fukuoka 
before midnight, glad of a few days' rest, which I 
spent in entomological researches in the woods, and 
antiquarian in the city. 

I had an invitation to visit the collection of 
a Japanese doctor, who had a reputation as an 
entomologist. When we called, he had gone 
on a professional visit into the country, but we 
were told by the servant that the lady of the house 
would be glad to see us. She, a sweet aristocratic- 
looking Japanese lady, had the keys of her husband's 
cabinets, and kindly allowed me to examine everything 
at leisure. I derived much information from my visit 
on the marked differences between the lepidoptera of 
Kiushiu and those of the main island, a very large 
proportion being representative species. Then the 
lady insisted on showing us her collection of old 
Satsuma china, which she evidently held much more 
deserving of notice than her husband's insects, and it 
really was such a collection as could not now be 
brought together unless at considerable expenditure. 

I was afterwards fortunate enough to obtain in 
Fukuoka, in a second-hand shop in the lower part of 
the town, the only two specimens of old Satsuma 
crackled ware that I met with for sale. Here, too, as 
we were out of the beat of ordinary tourists, I secured 
several specimens of antique bronzes. These things, 
though easily obtained at the first opening of the 
country, often now fetch higher prices in Japan than 
in Europe. Whilst ransacking the old curiosity shops 
in company with my kind friend and host Mr. Hind, 



304 



RAMBLES IN JAPAN 



as we left one shop in which, we were attended to by 
the mistress only, her husband being out, Mr. Hind 
asked me if I had not been .struck by her appearance. 
I said I noticed that she had not only a handsome, 
but a remarkably long and oval face. He replied 
that she had all the marks of the most aristocratic 
Japanese type, and he was determined to find out who 
she was. Upon inquiry it was ascertained that she 
was the daughter of a Daimio of high rank, who had 
been ruined in the Satsuma rebellion. 

From Fukuoka my face was turned homeward, or 
rather further from home, across the Pacific to 
Vancouver. We retraced our steps to Moji, and 
crossed the famous Straits of Shimanoseki to Bakan, 
the town on main island side, where we rested a night 
waiting for the steamer ; then through the Inland 
Sea, of which the traveller can never tire, though the 
reader may ; a few days at Osaka ; a halt at Kioto, 
and then at Tokio for farewell visits ; and I am once 
more embarked on a Canadian Pacific boat, and 
reluctantly bid farewell to the enchanting Land of 
the Eising Sun as we steer towards Columbia's western 
shore. 



INDEX. 



Arima, 30. 

Armour, 57, 58.^ 

Aso San, volcano of, 291—295. 

Austin, Rev. W. T., work of, 34. 

Awaji, Island of, 247, 261. 

Bathing arrangements, 147, 197. 
Birds, 63, 64, 105, 106, 120, 121, 122. 
Biwa, Lake of, 187. 
Bridges, 84, 85, 86, 258. 
Buddha, images of, 105, 141, 204. 
sacred horse of, 98. 

Cherry-trees, 35, 50. 

Chinese language, uses of, 114. 

Christian educators, 39, 208, 237, 238. 

relics, 46. 
Chusenji, Lake of, 107-113. 
Climate, 19, 20. 
Cloisonne ware, 175, 177. 
Coal mining, 22, 23, 268, 269. 
Cormorant fishing, 181. 
Cryptomerias, 83, 108, 1 1 6. 
Czarevitch, assault upon, 188, 190. 

Dazaifu, 277. 
Deshima, 13, 15. 
Doshisha, 208. 

Earthquake, 73. 

Emperor's gardens, Kioto, 211, 212. 

palaces, 41, 219. 
" English as she is spoke," 136, 137, 
197. 

English language, spread of, 114. 

Falconry, 94, 97, 98. 

Fisheries, 21, 258, 261. 

Fishing-tackle, 62. 

Flower show at Osaka, 245. 

Formosa, Island of, 20. 

Fruit-trees, 35. 

Fuji San, mountain of, 127. 

origin of word, 162. 



Fukuoka, 269-276. 

Geysers of Yunotan, 295. 
Gifu, 180, 182. 
Gotemba, 153. 

Hakone, 138, 142. 
Hawking, 94, 97, 98. 
Heraldry, 40. 
Hideyoshi, 226, 227. 
Hieizan, mountain of, 214, 215. 
Hikone, 184, 187. 

Hotels, 86, 87, 88,90, 112, 153, 155 
184, 192. 

Inland sea, 24, 25, 266, 267, 268. 
Insignia, 39, 40. 
Iyeyasu, 91, 92. 

temples and mausoleum of, 90 
93, 98-101. 
Irrigation, 144, 287. 

Japanese courtesy, 163. 

eating customs, 155, 156. 
literalness, 153, 154. 
love of the beautiful, 14, 15 
109. 

sponge-cake, 88, 
Jinrikshas, 35, 42. 

Kammon-ga-fuchi, 102. 
Karasaki, pine-trees near, i8j. 
Kiushiu, Island of, 19, 266-285. 
Kioto, 195-222. 

industrial exhibition, 213. 
Kobe, 24. 
Kozu, 128. 

Kumamoto, 279, 280, 283. 



Lamps, bronze and stone, 50. 

Match factory in Osaka, 241. 
Mausoleums, 100, 271, 284. 
May day, 71. 

305 



306 



INDEX 



Minerals, 21, 22. 
Missions at Gifu, 182. 

Fukuoko, 269, 272-275. 

Kumamoto, 280. 

Kurume, 300, 301, 302. 

Nagasaki, 16. 

Osaka, 229-234. 

Shikoku, 247. 

Tokio, 73, 74. 

Tokushima, 250-256. 
Miya-no-Shita, journey to, 133, 134. 
Museums, 45, 46, 47. 
Nagasaki, 13, 15, 16. 
Nagoya, 165-180. 
Naruto, 261, 262. 
Neeshima, Joseph, 208, 211, 212. 
Nijo, castle of, 221, 222. 
Nikko, 81-123. 

cascades near, 106, 109, 119. 
journey to, 81, 82, 83, 84. 
Nippon, Island of, 19. 

Odawara, 128, 129. 
Osaka, 30, 225-246. 
Otsu, 189, 190. 

Parliament-house, 41. 
Passports, 81. 
Painting, 177. 
Pheasants, 89. 

feathers exported, 89. 
Poaching, 107. 

Porcelain, making of, 175, 176, 177. 
packing of, 1 78. 

Railway station luncheons, 165. 

travelling, 35, 81, 128, 164, 
172, 184, 268, 269, 279. 
Ronins, legend of, 66, 69. 

Sailors' home, 34. 



Satsuma ware, 175, 176. 

Schools, 39, 53, 208, 230, 237, 238. 

Shiba, 57, 70. 

Shikoku, Island of, 247-265. 

voyage to, 248. 
Shinto temples, 47, 48, 1 11. 
Shodo Shonin, legends of, 85, 86. 
Shoguns, 40, 65. 

shrines of, 50, 65. 
St. Andrew's school, 76. 
St. Hilda's school, 77. 
Straw bridges, 1 10. 

sandals, 1 10. 
Sulphur baths, 141, 148, 292, 296. 

Taxidermists' shops, 62. 
Tarutama, 292. 
Tea drinking, 242. 

making, 298. 
Temples, 47, 66, 90-102, 161, 170, 171, 
172, 191, 198-208, 218, 229, 253, 
277, 278. 
Tides at Naruto, 262. 
Tokio, 35, 36. 

university of, 53. 
Tokushima, 250—257 
Trees, dwarfing and transplanting, 54. 

preservation of, 269. 
Tycoon, meaning of, 40. 

Uyeno, 42, 45, 46. 

Volcano of Aso San, 291-295. 

"Water travelling, 24, 248, 249, 250, 

266, 267. 
Wax-trees, 288. 
Women, clothing of, 23. 

Yezzo, island of, 19. 
Yokohama, 33. 



H 276 85 11 



LB D '09 




% °-^y V v* 7,7 V ..... v 








•2* A> o « 



HECKMAN 

BINDERY INC. 

APR 85 

ffflg^ N. MANCHESTER, 
^^ss^ INDIANA 46962 



<.v ... -fe. ft v , > o, *> V . *jLs*J:< 

v «v .-4.° 

- — imHuijumHMU^^ 



